That may be true to some extent. I haven't been to college (not counting working at one) in decades. But back then I was getting a degree in Accounting, and took ONE CLASS in programming - sounded boring, but I figured I should know something about computers. I was immediately hooked. We wrote a program in PL/C (on the blackboard) the very first day, and I never looked back. Three or four or six weeks later I talked to a student who was taking COBOL; they hadn't been allowed to touch a cardpunch yet, and were just learning about the theory of loops. I had much the better teacher, God bless him!
By the way, Steve, I enjoyed your tagline :). --- Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 /* Beware of any Christian leader who does not walk with a limp. -Bob Mumford */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Steve Thompson Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2020 16:07 I have asked and been told that various universities do not teach languages, they teach theory. So the students learn an object oriented language such as C++ or Java online(?). The statements made and questions asked of/by contract programmers (off shore) relative to COBOL — I believe it. Sent from my iPhone — small keyboarf, fat fungrs, stupd spell manglr. Expct mistaks > --- On Apr 5, 2020, at 3:09 PM, Bob Bridges <robhbrid...@gmail.com> wrote: > Says here "COBOL is a dead language that hasn't been taught in most > universities for decades, and the rare COBOL coders command anywhere from > $55 to $85 an hour". > > I'm reminded that five or ten years ago one of my sons heard my standard > rant #37 about mainframes, and thought maybe he should learn to work with > them (thinking it might lead to job security, in which I imagine he was not > entirely wrong). For a few weeks I called around trying to find out what it > would cost me to rent space for two accounts on an IBM mainframe somewhere. > My questions must have been repeated here and there, for eventually an IBM > guy called me and said if I could get the local university to teach a few > courses on mainframes, they'd have to rent space on a mainframe for the > students and IBM would ~give~ me two accounts so I could teach my son. I > did call one of the local universities, one I'd worked at for two years, but > couldn't drum up any interest. > > The IBM guy also said that companies were getting so desperate for mainframe > trainees that they were sponsoring college courses their own selves, just so > they'd have someone they could hire later. > > COBOL is by no means a "dead language", in any practical sense, but > apparently the writer got it right that it isn't being taught in schools. > > Dunno about 55 to 85 $/hr, though, unless things have gotten a lot worse > since I got into the security side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
