IBM taps AI to translate COBOL code to Java | TechCrunch
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IBM's new product offering, Code Assistant for IBM Z, leverages a generative AI model to translate COBOL code to Java.

It’s not the 1st time a language/tool will be lost to the annals of the job market, eg VB6 or FoxPro. Though previously all such cases used to happen gradually, giving most people enough time to adapt to the changes.

I wonder what’s it going to be like this time now that the machine, w/ the help of humans of course, can accomplish an otherwise multi-month risky corporate project much faster? What happens to all those COBOL developer jobs?

Pray share your thoughts, esp if you’re a COBOL professional and have more context around the implication of this announcement 🙏

    • TacoEnglish
      0•1 year ago

      JavaScript is actually really nice as a beginner programming language because of how quickly and visually you can see your results, and how easily you can debug with console output. Yeah it’s horribly unoptimized but it’s not for big things. It’s for little things. It’s baby’s first programming language.

      • @PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml
        1•1 year ago

        It actually is pretty quick. Dont sleep on JavaScript capabilities. However, it is untyped. You wouldn’t want the date you wrote your check to become the amount of your check, for example.

        TypeScript does a nice job there but all in all at that point might as well go all in on a typed language.