cobol on mainframes traumatized me

[@zzzdenda]

I admire your patience, I would curse all the time. Looking forward to the next part.

[@ellyse7777]

Luckily I have a very short memory lol

[@NotMarkKnopfler]

Hello! Just stumbled on your video somehow - this is interesting to me personally as I've considered learning COBOL for professional reasons as COBOL positions can be lucrative. So I'll be watching this video in its entirety over the course of the weekend. Have a great weekend - maybe stay away from the computer for a couple of days to detox from your experience 🤣

[@ellyse7777]

I'm just staying away from COBOL for a few days! But you know, I think once we get going, this can be fun. What's closer to weilding magic than using mainframe commands?

[@NotMarkKnopfler]

@@ellyse7777 Yes - agree - it should be fun. Just remember, all the shite that you will have to go through to run COBOL is not an artefact of the language. It's the fact that you're coding on a mainframe (or a virtualised mainframe) and the mainframe is very very strict about how things are done. You'll submit your code for compilation and execution using JCL (job control language) (everything on these mainframes is a job, which is executed and logged, so you can go back in time and see who executed what, when, what happened, how long did it take, how much CPU did it use etc). So, you'll be thinking "Why the heck do I have to do this/that" etc... But that's not COBOL - it's the platform your coding on. If you installed a COBOL compiler locally the workflow would be similar to any other compiled language. It's just the fact that you'll be running on a mainframe that will make it painful! Personally I love the thought of running all this mainframe stuff - but I'm ancient - 54 years old, and have done years of assembly language programming with arcane, self-built tools, so it's no biggie for me. Looking forward to following your series. Subbed 🙂

[@giullianosep]

I think you’re right, Haskell is the most beautiful language, but unfortunately I don’t work with it. LOL

[@ellyse7777]

@@giullianosep we don’t always get to choose how we make money haha

[@giullianosep]

That’s true, I had to work with ABAP for 10 years and I’m as traumatized with it as you are with COBOL. But now I work with C# and I enjoy it quite a lot too. 😊

[@ellyse7777]

@ never heard of it but taking a look , i can see why it’s traumatic lol

[@yxyk-fr]

6:05 so COBOL is the scientology of programming ?

[@ellyse7777]

@@yxyk-fr I think COBOL is fine but ibms marketing around mainframes does come across a bit too salesy in a culty sort of way haha but ssshhh I want a job in the cult lol

[@yxyk-fr]

@@ellyse7777 don't tell me you're surprised ;-) If you want to explore weird cults, the church of Forth is something 😀 I don't know any other language that has spawned as many custom CPUs, way more than Lisp or even Brainfuck...

[@ellyse7777]

@@yxyk-fr one cult at a time but yes !

[@yxyk-fr]

yeah @@ellyse7777 though the Forth cult will not earn you a living.