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Watsonx: IBM's code assistant for turning COBOL into Java

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127 points Anon84 | 7 comments | 03 Dec 23 16:31 UTC | HN request time: 1.135s | source | bottom
1. apstats ◴[03 Dec 23 18:15 UTC] No.38509335[source]▶
I feel like this solution was written by someone who hasn’t built software before. Doing a rewrite for the sake of a rewrite is not a good idea.
replies(1): >>38509391 #
2. high_5 ◴[03 Dec 23 18:21 UTC] No.38509391[source]▶
So... Having no COBOL devs left is a better one? What's the alternative then?
replies(2): >>38509551 #>>38510999 #
3. apstats ◴[03 Dec 23 18:41 UTC] No.38509551[source]▶
Yes - if we need them to people can learn COBOL it's not any harder to learn than many other programming languages.
replies(1): >>38510833 #
4. ◴[03 Dec 23 21:14 UTC] No.38510833{3}[source]▶
5. stonogo ◴[03 Dec 23 21:36 UTC] No.38510999[source]▶
There are plenty of COBOL devs; they're just not in the American labor market.
replies(1): >>38514232 #
6. dr_kiszonka ◴[04 Dec 23 06:23 UTC] No.38514232{3}[source]▶
Would bumping starting salaries for Cobol devs to 150k, resolve it in the US? (I am assuming banks could afford it.)
replies(1): >>38525605 #
7. stonogo ◴[05 Dec 23 00:52 UTC] No.38525605{4}[source]▶
No, since that's not too much higher than starting salaries for Python programming at a medium-sized research institute, and there's no clear career progression for COBOL programmers.