Today, in the 21st century and almost 40 years later the
reality is;
There are still
tens of billions of lines of COBOL code still in use today.1
One estimate says
that COBOL/CICS applications account for 60% of all the applications
that are currently in operation for the 21st century.1
Another estimate
says that these 85% of all the transactions processed for the 21st
century are processed using COBOL1.
So when you
withdraw money from an ATM, place an airline reservation, or order a
product over the Internet, chances are that a COBOL/CICS application has
been used to process your transaction.
DCD Provides
COBOL Programmers an Alternative for the 21st Century
COBOL Software maintenance, for many a COBOL user, has emerged as a costly
nightmare of monstrous proportions. Firms and organizations that started
out with a handful of software programs have experienced a proliferation
in program needs that leaves them with an overall system that can be all
but impossible to manage. Standardization often is lacking; documentation
is altered over time, conflicting documentation creeps into the system or,
worse, information is lost as a result
of staff turnover. The result is drastic deterioration in a business asset
rivaling the crisis posed by years of neglect in the maintenance of the
nation’s highway systems. Software inventories, like the nation’s highways
and bridges, represent a massive investment in both time and dollars and,
like the infrastructure, they cannot be scrapped. They must be maintained
and protected in the 21st century as well.
Many programmers feel that their COBOL programs need to
rewritten in newer languages. However, rewriting all of a company’s
programs in a new language is an option that is an expensive and a
potentially risky proposition. Rewriting is similar to original
development, involving a long design, code, test, and implementation
cycle.
Research2
indicates that:
at least 50% of
such projects run over budget.
nearly one-quarter
of them are behind schedule.
more than 25% of
them are rescheduled or cancelled.
the final system
has less than one-half of the planned features.
DCD’s COBOL
Automated System provides COBOL programmers for the 21st
century an alternative by providing new tools and enabling it to respond
more quickly (and with less disruption and less cost) to new requirements
in the business. DCD focuses on the future, by determining how to
structure older applications so that they can operate with newer
technologies. DCD preserves the investment in COBOL infrastructures and
providing an "evolutionary effort rather than a replacement strategy"2.
The Future of COBOL
COBOL is appreciated for its breadth, functionality, and English-like
syntax. But COBOL has always been controversial. Why is that so? Writing a
program in COBOL takes more time than in most other programming languages.
Instead of writing computer-oriented code (B =A), the developer uses
natural language statements (MOVE A TO B). This takes time and may seem
unnecessary to the programmer. But this type of code has at least two
significant business advantages that have contributed to its popularity.
First, employees who are solving a business problem can focus their
attention on the solution rather than on the translation into code.
COBOL’s natural language statements mean that there is less focus on
programming and more on business savvy. Second, COBOL’s English-like
statements allow a maintenance programmer or other coworker to read and
understand code developed by another person. The COBOL itself remains
meaningful to a business person long after code was written.
Formerly manual business practices and routines have been transformed into
automated processes, enhanced, modified, and refined over and over again,
to become Cobol applications that do their jobs effectively and at great
benefit to the organizations they serve.
1)The
Future of COBOL by Mike Murach 2) According to Capers Jones,
(Software Assessments, Benchmarks, and Best Practices), rewriting a
10,000-function-point application 2The Future of COBOL - by Gerold Ekström
