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raytaylor

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#101491 3-May-2012 00:03
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Found this in todays edition of the nz government tenderwatch alert
It must be a very highly paid job for a very rare skill nowadays
Does anyone other than a bank or the IRD use COBOL in NZ? I suspect statistics new zealand probably still has a punch card machine somewhere in a rarely used room in welliongton.

36145
Flexible Workforce Supply of Unisys COBOL Developers
Inland Revenue Department
30/05/12

Details:

GETS Reference: 36145TitleNew Zealand based opportunityFlexible Workforce Supply of Unisys COBOL DevelopersRequest for ProposalYour Reference NumberGeneral InformationInland Revenue has released this Request for Proposal (RFP) because it is seeking to identify a supplier to work with Information Technology Operations and Services (IT) to provide flexible supply of specialised IT Unisys COBOL resources.

We need to secure key skills and capability which will allow IR to have a flexible and sustained level of resource trained to a level of competence to work on IR’s custom-built mainframe business systems on the UNISYS Clearpath platform.

Please check the Tender Documents Listed below for more information.Respond by DateAddress Enquiries toPlease quote reference number 201206300 in any communication.

Email: tenders@ird.govt.nz




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freitasm
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  #618684 3-May-2012 07:31
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Cobol is not a rare skill... There are lots of companies that still use it and a lot of people still working on that.





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surfisup1000
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  #618686 3-May-2012 07:39
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freitasm: Cobol is not a rare skill... There are lots of companies that still use it and a lot of people still working on that.



Perhaps the number of cobol job positions is declining at about the same rate as the cobol programmer mortality rate? 

But seriously, there are a lot of companies using mainframes/mini-systems -- some of these systems have excellent transaction processing speeds and the code is mature therefore less bugs. 

What are the advantages of upgrading these systems? Sometimes not a lot . Look at telecom NZ, ICMS has been running OK for sometime now. They tried to replace it a few years back but that failed. 

raytaylor

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  #618741 3-May-2012 10:04
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Wow i never would have thought.




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freitasm
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  #618749 3-May-2012 10:23
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There are still more lines of Cobol code around the world than anything else.




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reven
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  #618771 3-May-2012 11:05
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freitasm: There are still more lines of Cobol code around the world than anything else.


that makes me want to write a c# app to generate c# code and throw it up on azure, just to dethrone it :P

wheres your source on that? thought javascript might be up there now...

sidefx
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  #618782 3-May-2012 11:25
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http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/08/cobol-everywhere-and-nowhere.html

interesting read;  and has a simple example of WHY there are may be so very many lines of COBOL ;-)




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nate
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  #618787 3-May-2012 11:32
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Merely a technicality.  Unisys will get this work.

(the whole GETS process is utter BS).

 
 
 

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reven
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  #618794 3-May-2012 11:40
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sidefx: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/08/cobol-everywhere-and-nowhere.html

interesting read;  and has a simple example of WHY there are may be so very many lines of COBOL ;-)


interesting read, thanks for the link

reven
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  #618801 3-May-2012 11:54
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actually if you count it as lines of code, javascript might win, clients download the code, proxy download code, not increasing the amount of unique code, but out of that 220 billion that wont be unique as well, so you should count every instance of the code. so javascript might be in the running...

this is going to bug me....

Dratsab
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#618802 3-May-2012 11:55
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I remember laughing my head off years ago after being told COBOL was an "exercise in artificial inelegance".

sidefx
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  #618805 3-May-2012 12:02
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reven: actually if you count it as lines of code, javascript might win, clients download the code, proxy download code, not increasing the amount of unique code, but out of that 220 billion that wont be unique as well, so you should count every instance of the code. so javascript might be in the running...

this is going to bug me....


I wouldn't claim copies of existing code (in browsers\proxies\etc) as additional lines of code... but you're not the only one skeptical on those COBOL figures:

http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5114/250-billions-line-of-cobol-1mln-cobol-programmers

TBH I find them a little hard to believe too.




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  #618835 3-May-2012 12:55
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There are many 'legacy' systems that are working just fine and are too difficult to replace.

The huge irony is that it seems we only train people in this country on the 'newer' languages and tools, and the organisations that need COBOL/RPG programmers etc have to bring the programmers in from overseas and pay them a mint. The NZ trained grads end up having to go overseas to find work.




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surfisup1000
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  #618838 3-May-2012 13:03
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robjg63: There are many 'legacy' systems that are working just fine and are too difficult to replace.

The huge irony is that it seems we only train people in this country on the 'newer' languages and tools, and the organisations that need COBOL/RPG programmers etc have to bring the programmers in from overseas and pay them a mint. The NZ trained grads end up having to go overseas to find work.



Yes, but one cobol programmer is worth 5 java programmers with respect to productivity :)

reven
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  #618846 3-May-2012 13:11
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sidefx:
reven: actually if you count it as lines of code, javascript might win, clients download the code, proxy download code, not increasing the amount of unique code, but out of that 220 billion that wont be unique as well, so you should count every instance of the code. so javascript might be in the running...

this is going to bug me....


I wouldn't claim copies of existing code (in browsers\proxies\etc) as additional lines of code... but you're not the only one skeptical on those COBOL figures:

http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5114/250-billions-line-of-cobol-1mln-cobol-programmers

TBH I find them a little hard to believe too.


yeah but surely that 220 billion lines of code isnt unique, some traffic light systems will be the same code, same with shipping etc.  i doubt its all unique

Ragnor
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  #618850 3-May-2012 13:13
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surfisup1000:

Yes, but one cobol programmer is worth 5 java programmers with respect to productivity :)


You should get paid a bonus for having to write something as verbose as COBOL to get things done.


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