Porting COBOL Code and the Trouble With Ditching Domain Specific Languages
1 min read
Summary
Languages like Fortran and COBOL, often deemed as ‘antiquated’, still fulfill specific domains and use cases, and a rewrite in a ‘modern’ general purpose programming language would not address the issue.
The point of a domain specific language is to simplify the usage within the domain, making it easier to teach to those in said domain.
A replacement of such a language in a rewrite by a general purpose language would mean reinventing the wheel in said domain and requiring the new users to learn a more complex language.
COBOL has features making it more general, and it is not as outdated as often assumed with its latest standard release being published in 2023.
The kernel of the problem of code maintenance is often not the language, but the quality of the code, its interactions, and the underlying design decisions.
