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Is this course worth doing ?

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  • 19-05-2007 11:08pm
    #1
    Dun na nGal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 33 ✭


    FAS are advertising a 26 week course to train COBAL mainframe programmers. Java seems to more prevailent now, so would this be a waste of time?
    Id be grateful for opinions.


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    #2
    blipp
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32 ✭blipp


    Cobol is dead. Nobody uses this anymore for a new programme. However lots of legacy systems are built in Cobol and there can be lots of contract jobs out there for people who know Cobol for patching and transferring etc.


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    #3
    stabu
    Closed Accounts Posts: 120 ✭✭stabu


    "nothing in software ever dies" is an expression you hear every now and then, though blipp is partially right, there's still tons of cobol out there.

    In fact I'd venture Cobol is still quite vibrant, but increasingly it's the reserve of the elder members of the programming community, who probably are fairly satisfied that their skills are getting rarer,a stheir market value increases. The case is exactly the opposite with Java.

    The key thing in evaluating this course is what sort of practical experience you can get with the language. Ask about that first.

    On-hands experience with Java is easy, but no with Cobol: you don't get Cobol on just any platform ...


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    #4
    icom
    Registered Users Posts: 476 ✭✭icom


    Dun na nGal wrote:
    FAS are advertising a 26 week course to train COBAL mainframe programmers. Java seems to more prevailent now, so would this be a waste of time?
    Id be grateful for opinions.

    I would advise you to give it a try.

    I did a 4 year programming degree, and I'm working with people who did that 26 week FAS course. They are well able for the work, and the company are very pleased with their performance on the job.

    Doing that course is a good way to get into the software testing and Quality Assurance as well.

    Believe it or not 80% of the world's daily business transactions are processed by COBOL/Mainframe back end systems. It's going to be a long time before COBOL becomes obsolete!
    Most of the work is maintaining existing software, making small changes in order to keep it up to date, and then fully testing it.

    COBOL is very English like and easy to learn, although it can be a bit of a headache getting it to compile at times (missing full stop or a comma)!!

    If you do decide to do the course, good luck to you and I hope you end up getting employment from it.

    icom.


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    #5
    Naikon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭Naikon


    Remember it "compiles only because of luck":D
    Jokes aside, It would be better to learn more languages than COBOL.
    Learn C++ as a foundation and build up knowledge of other languages from there on in.


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    #6
    icom
    Registered Users Posts: 476 ✭✭icom


    Naikon wrote:
    Remember it "compiles only because of luck":D
    Jokes aside, It would be better to learn more languages than COBOL.
    Learn C++ as a foundation and build up knowledge of other languages from there on in.


    Not forgetting, Completely Obsolete Business Orientated Language !! :)

    icom..


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