People are going to cringe and shriek when I say this but for the past 10+ years I’ve been doing Oracle PL/SQL programming. I actually enjoy it because all I ever needed to do anything was a database connection and a text editor. Most programs I wrote in that didn’t require any fancy compilers or crazy frameworks to get going. (Not a DBA but development)
There starting to switch out of that where I work more. It sucks cause what used to be a point A -> B process now is a point A -> R -> S -> E -> (B)ackwards process to build something simple with the new tools which are web based of all things or a large eclipse install with several frameworks which NOBODY wants to touch where I work and they all look at me if we ever will have to touch that.
Oh and korn and bash scripting was fun to but even that is going to be less going in to the future and bleh cloud.
COBOL was used in mainframe/bank applications from the late 50’s until the early 70’s. And some companies kept those ancient mainframe systems until the 80’s or early 90’s. It’s NEVER been used for anything on home computers or for any kind of games. I’m 48, and COBOL is before my time. It had been phased out before I started using computers at the age of 6.
COBOL was completely obsolete, and never used to develop anything, back when Blizzard was called Silicon & Synapse. Let alone when they made WOW, lol. WOW (talking classic) was made in either C or C++, I don’t know which. Probably a mix. Heck even Orcs and Humans was C/C++.
That said, there are COBOL compilers available for Linux, but that’s a case of “why not”. COBOL was only ever used for math. Basically what amounts to mainframe spreadsheet type stuff, before actual PC’s were powerful enough to run spreadsheet applications. Back end stuff managing bank software, etc.
I took a tour of Blizzard before Blizzcon and I am pretty sure I saw COBOL books in someone’s office. Why would someone have those in their office if their game doesn’t use it?
Just because programmers have books about old languages (because studying old languages helps you understand newer ones because you understand how they evolved), doesn’t mean that Blizzard ever made any products with it. They didn’t.
That’s because we were under the impression that Microsoft’s OS monopoly would be broken eventually, and then Java’s platform independence would be important. Instead game companies resigned themselves to being married to Microsoft. That’s why they’re all using .NET/C#/C++ now.
I know COBOL, don’t use it much but I do know it. It was one of the first languages I learned after assembly and the original form of basic. Even messed around a bit in Fortran.
