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

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127 points Anon84 | 2 comments | 03 Dec 23 16:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.548s | source
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tw04 ◴[03 Dec 23 17:20 UTC] No.38508735[source]▶
Plenty of folks know COBOL - the problem is you need to entice someone YOUNG to learn it, which basically means overpaying them. If I'm an 18-year-old why would I focus on learning a programming language that puts me in a job with 0 chance of advancement? Sure I'm irreplaceable to the company, but I've also only got a handful of other places I could go if they treat me poorly or sunset their mainframe.
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1. rini17 ◴[03 Dec 23 18:19 UTC] No.38509372[source]▶
How do you decide which language has better chances for advancement anyway? Pick some hot bleeding edge Microsoft tech instead and learn it only to get obsolete in few years.

You will have to eventually relearn regardless what you pick. And I can't believe having some COBOL in the CV will be an issue for anybody.

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2. Kwpolska ◴[04 Dec 23 06:53 UTC] No.38514364[source]▶
COBOL is one end of the spectrum, hot bleeding edge tech is another. Pick a mature yet modern stack and it should be fine for longer.