I’m on a project right now that is converting a FORTRAN program. :)
I was in a music store here in Louisville when I first moved here and, after talking to another older customer in the store, found out he was in upper management at Humana. When he discovered my history he mentioned that they were considering bringing in some old COBOL programmers to train the younger people in COBOL because they still need it but nobody is learning it.
I had just been hired for another job that week so I declined. In hindsight, I should have looked into it. I have a teaching background as well, and it could have been a great opportunity, I suspect.
“considering bringing in some old COBOL programmers to train the younger people in COBOL because they still need it but nobody is learning it.”
All application programming on our mainframe and AS400 is COBOL. If you can imagine this....most of our programmers have white hair :>) Not kidding. surprised?
FORTRAN! Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. We still have PL/1 programs in the Version Control system. We are a Linux shop.
Many young people refuse to spend time on COBOL for fear it might pigeon hole them. That’s why I turned down a high paying job in the 80’s writing TrueBASIC and Quickjob. I am the only surviving COBOL/C programmer and no one even wants to learn it even though our most important batch programs are written in it. I am also the last Oracle Forms developer and our Enterprise system is written in it.
No wonder people are so interested in my physicals.