Why do we still use COBOL?

[Arun Rajput]

Hi,

It is a rather curiosity question so I might face some friction. Should I , but I still want to ask it.

Question is why do we still use COBOL? When there are many other languages specially like C and Python are supported on mainframes?

As mush I ask it and research the answer usually comes like, "COOBL is suitable for business-oriented programming and hence in use." But this does not sound like an answer. I am not like not convinced. May be it's not good to ask but still any thoughts?

Thanks

[Robert Sample]

1. Inertia -- there are probably hundreds of billions of lines of COBOL code being used every day, and replacing that code (and the business logic encoded in it) would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.

2. Functionality -- creating an output field like "**,***,**9.05" is trivial in COBOL -- how do you do this in Python or C?

3. Extensibility -- IBM has added object-oriented coding, Java interfaces, XML interfaces, and so forth to COBOL in the last few years so there are few, if any, advantages to using Python or C over COBOL.

4. Efficiency -- the COBOL compiler generates very efficient code and while this is not as critical as it used to be, it can still be very important in some applications.

[Arun Rajput]

Thanks for the detailed answer, Robert.

But if today someone starts a new business, do you think choosing mainframes is a good option?

[Robert Sample]

Most new businesses are too small for an IBM mainframe. I haven't seen z16 pricing but for some years about the cheapest you could get a mainframe for was about $50,000 to $75,000 dollars. And then you have to add in the monthly license charges, extra software, a backup solution, and so forth. New businesses can't generally afford half a million dollars for a mainframe.