Whats your take on COBOL?

[Sharan]

Hi all,

I'm currently developing in C#. I originally started out with COBOL, had some decent times there. Now there is an opportunity for me to maybe do some COBOL development again.

Question is: should I? Or should I stick with .net?

 

[TheMightyP]

I love cobol, but unfortunately it doesn't have the market acceptance that c# has. So, I think, if you want to be able to find a job easier in the future, stick with c#. But if you want to enjoy what you do... cobol.

 

[Cruelty]

It's a language meant to be read, not written.

 

[greggpb]

The time of COBOL has come and gone, you might enjoy it but at the end of the day all the companies running cobol are going to change to somthing more modern soon or dont have any budget..

 

[skateboardt]

we use RPG and Cobol but COBOL is slowly dying out, so i think you should stick with C#

 

[iCubed.Saajid]

Stick with C#. Although COBOL is still alive and in relatively widespread use, it is a dying language. Support and maintenance of COBOL systems is much higher than that of .Net or Java based systems, and most banks/institutions have plans to eventually replace all COBOL systems with more modern technologies.

So career wise - go with C#. After some experience with C#, you will really start to enjoy it, much more than you ever enjoyed COBOL.

EDIT: BTW, how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[ponder]

All depends on the money. Go where the money is. Cobol is still pretty big in the banking industry.