Is Java getting better with age?

TalkBack 11 of 19:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

RPG

Anyone remember Report Program Generator? As a young programmer just out of school and trained in FORTAN, RPG just would not do for me. I was so happy to get out of that and into COBOL which I think still commands the majority of code still being executed in the business world.

Even so, COBOL could not handle multi-user access to a database on its own and AT&T had to hire IBM to help it develop Customer Information and Control System, (CICS) and the C language it was written in. We COBOL coders happily used assember macros to make CICS (an application) work for our businesses.

The work was all procedural, nothing object oriented of course, and none of that would have worked without strict division of labour among us.

The RPG coders were paid very little, the COBOL coders more, the CICS capable the most and we had System Programmers that were responsible only for keeping our operating systems and tools upto date and our backup strategies sound. Today I think history repeats itself.

It would be useful to peform a salary study. I suspect script writers command the least pay. Those who code in Java more, those who are able to update databases from Java via EJBs or JDBC in a multi-user environment, the most, and the king of the pay scale is the guy that is responsible for the builds and upgrades, the guy roughly equivalent to System Programmer.

My experience with RPG demonstrated that while inital productivity gains appeared impressive owing to the ability to put lesser paid staff into jobs using that tool, once you began trying to do more than reading databases and flat files, RPG began failing (in terms of productivity gains against COBOL).

By the time CICS was added to RPG, I could tell it wasn't going anywhere. That was trying to do to much with the language. RPG programmers who couldn't move to COBOL ended up selling crafts at the summer fairs even if they could grasp CICS, and they left the IT profession.

If history is repeating itself, one should consider the salary of the old system programmers. These folk got the most pay of all, which even so wasn't enough compenstion for the risk. One failed recovory and loss of the "artifacts" and that was it. Off to the summer craft fairs and out of the profession. There was good reason for smart folks, myself included, to decline that "promotion".

As professionals ponder the trendiness of Java and C++ vs scripts, they may wish to ponder the career path of an IT professional of the past. The Past may well be the Future.


Frank L. Mighetto

Posted by: mighetto   Posted on: 01/17/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now