COBOL quote in the news

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Steve Robertson wrote:
>>  > or perhaps (automated) language translators; say from Cobol to Java.
>>
>> If you do an automated translation, the result will just be COBOL that's 
>> written in Java.  You won't be able to find *anyone* that's good at 
>> maintaining that mess.
>>
>> Eric
> 
> I have a friend that is working for a company Web-enabling a COBOL
> application for the DOD. This is a mission critical application that
> consists of thousands of data input screens and literally millions of
> lines of code. It was determined that the only semi-reasonable method of
> porting the application would be to use an automated tool.
> 
> The tool interprets the COBOL and spits out the mostly equivalent JAVA
> code. I am told most of the code will not compile / run without serious
> modification. So a developer, conversant in both COBOL and JAVA, has to
> modify the already FUBAR code. The result is a multimillion dollar
> hodge-podge of code that is absolutely unmaintainable!
> 
> My friend had been working on this project for the last 7 years and
> expects to retire long before it is complete.

I would've just written web primitives for COBOL, if they don't already 
exist.

Peace...  Sridhar