Re: An odd thing

Chris Rehm wrote:<SNIP>

> But they decided to use IBM's Visual Generator to redevelop all their AS/400
> based software to a client/server model using COBOL. I was very surprised by
> this choice. At first, I thought the guy telling me about it was joking. But
> he was serious, and he had called me to see if I knew anything about the
> account that might indicate some reason for this direction.
>

<SNIP>

> But, maybe this consulting firm (a national one) knows something I don't.
> Anybody got some idea what I am missing on this one?
>

And who ever said COBOL was dead?

Now I'm no advocate for COBOL, but have you ever noticed that the presidents of
IBM came up through the marketing ranks and never through technical?  So there 
is
probably no valid technical reason for this decision, but I'm willing to bet
there is a valid marketing one.

Let's see what are some of the reasons they could come to this conclusion:

1). You mentioned their AS/400 based applications, ANSI COBOL runs on a lot of
machines.
2). JAVA could just turn out to be another attempt/failure like UNIX.  Time will
tell, but who wants to wait?
3). The consultant has some COBOL programmers they are willing to farm out (for 
a
small fee)
4). The consultant has a large COBOL application user base which is ripe for the
picking and will joint market (for a small fee)

Just a start, I'm sure I could come with more once I've had something to eat. :)


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