From Waldo Jaquith, described as a former government technologist, writing for MSNBC:
... Wired magazine reported last week that the Department of Government Efficiency plans to replace the mainframes that power the agency’s mission and rebuild their functionality on new servers in a new programming language — with just a few months’ work.
Assuming Wired’s reporting is accurate, we know that such an effort will surely fail. The track record of decades of modernizations of thousands of software systems, in both the private and public sectors, makes that clear. This isn’t even an interesting-yet-flawed idea. It’s a hackneyed, clichéd bad idea that could only sound compelling to novice software developers. It’s like cooking a Thanksgiving turkey in 20 minutes by putting it in a blast furnace, or choosing to get measles instead of getting vaccinated against it: it sounds most convincing to the layperson who asks the fewest questions. ...
Critics complain that the COBOL programming language, widely in use in the SSA, is old and outdated. This is wrong. While COBOL’s origins date to 1959, it’s an actively maintained programming language, with an updated standard published by the International Standards Organization in 2023. The advanced age of actively maintained languages is evidence of their sustainability and quality. ...
Critics also complain that mainframes are antiquated in an era of cloud computing. In fact, mainframes are still in wide use throughout the public and private sectors. They are not the room-sized reel-to-reel machines of the 1960s, but instead sleek, modern machines that would turn any developer’s head. They excel anywhere that it’s important to have lots of processing power, high redundancy and the ability to muscle through big batches of data processing—precisely what the SSA needs. ...
Replacing COBOL is a special challenge, for a reason generally known only to experienced COBOL developers: math works differently in COBOL. It handles decimals unlike any other programming language, which is particularly important for large financial systems working at the scale of the SSA. What COBOL might calculate as 1,000.99, Java might calculate as 1,000.98. Neither number is wrong in a mathematical sense, but for an accounting and payment system designed around decades of COBOL-based math, the Java-based answer is functionally wrong. For a system making 840 million financial transactions annually, such a small difference in math can quickly spiral into a disaster. ...
9 comments:
Here are some of the back and forth discussions from a former SSA IT technician regarding COBOL usage:
One of the big arguments to replace COBOL is that it is no longer taught by universities and technical colleges. But it can be taught in-house. However, who wants to learn something that is not a marketable skill? Well, many Fed technical jobs are exclusive to specific Fed agencies with little overlap to private industry, at least on a competitive basis. Of course training is expensive, so minimizing turn-over by teaching skills less marketable provides an incentive for employees to be less likely to use that training to seek other employment. But how many college grads want to get a degree in a programming language that they will not use on the job and will atrophy? Well, in the 1970's most COBOL programmers that were trained in-house were hired after high school graduation.
Sorry but I've worked at SSA for many years in many different capacities and SSA technology is old, outdated, and difficult to train people on. We employees welcome new useful software that will power the future.
We do?
As a 30 year DDS employee, currently IT manager, I do not disagree with you. But to attempt to do this in months not years is wildly dangerous. The DOGE team has done NOTHING to earn any sense of 'professional discretion allowed.' If you believe they can pull this off, you are a fool.
Whoever made that post sure is not an SSA employee!!!! A plant for sure.
I honestly agree with this. If there weren’t so many damn “system limitations” with PCOM, I might change my mind. But when a solid percentage of your work anymore seems to be A101s, EF101s, manual comps, excepted inputs, etc, it just eats up SO much time to do these. Even doing the WC/PDB inputs and having to code your letters instead of just using plain recognizable language like English, it’s just dumb and outdated in 2025.
Or it's one of those employees who has been too lazy or intimidated to learn how to use PCOM.
Required reading pictured here for the 10 DOGE operatives currently living in the Altmeyer building.
https://www.fudzilla.com/news/60776-musk-gives-doge-months-to-replace-ssa-code
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. COBOL is alive and well and I’m currently training a young person who ASKED to learn it. OCIO. There are courses available online. Some free and some not.
Post a Comment