[Flick Lives]

The trouble is that all of the people who know how to maintain these systems -- while preparing to bolt on next-gen apps -- are aging out of the workforce, and there are no Millennials eagerly lining up to take their spots.

The problem is not so much the older programming languages like COBOL, but that many of the old programs are very poorly written; especially if written before the concept of structured programmer were made popular. Surviving code is likely (a) actually good code, or (b) bad code that was patched enough to limp thru most of the logical conditions encountered.

[AdmSmith]

but that many of the old programs are very poorly written;

True

[rhoda_penmark]

“many of the old programs are very poorly written; especially if written before the concept of structured programmer were made popular.”

Yes, and there was that matter of the two-character year fields that were used back then.