Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

COBOL is very easy to learn and write if you use it for what it was intended for. If you try to make a crud app or read from a web service, you are going to have a bad time. Trust me, I know. It can be done, but it is not pretty and was kind of shoe-horned in.

We have been trying to get rid of all of our COBOL and get off of the mainframe (many apps have been) for the past 20+ years. We are getting closer but priorities keep changing which keeps delaying that goal.

I love doing backend and db work so I would gladly switch to Go for my new projects. But, I would still need to use DB2, which (surprise surprise) is on the mainframe.



Db2 actually implements SQL/PSM, which is more than can be said for Sybase/Microsoft SQL Server.

I'm not sure if this extends to all three Db2 variants, namely Mainframe, AS/400 derivatives, and UDB for Linux and Windows (I hope so).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL/PSM

IBM supposedly got the PSM code from EnterpriseDB/Postgres.

https://www.enterprisedb.com/news/enterprisedb-and-ibmr-coll...

https://www.internetnews.com/blog/ibm-gets-compatible-with-o...


What they got from EnterpriseDB is the Oracle (PL/SQL) compatibility. SQL/PSM was built by IBM themselves.


This is actually the first time I have heard of SQL/PSM. From Wiki, looks like it is for stored procedures. We do not do stored procedures at all on our DB2 instances. Heck, we don't even use triggers either. All our mainframe/DB2 business logic is in COBOL.


Wow! I've worked with SMS sending gateway and cofounders cannot avoid temptation to use stored procedures for logic (we use Postgres, and logic in Perl). Because of this, last years installations limited by HDD performance, but fortunately, after crisis of 2008, we don't need much scaling.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: