Over on HackerRank.com, you can take your coding test in over four-dozen different languages. They have every obscure language including Fortran, LOLCODE, COBOL, and Brainf**k. But no Xojo. See the list here: HackerRank.com
There are several sites like this and they have huge audiences. Apparently, this is how companies interview programmers these days. So, these sites might be good for Xojo to evangelize and get Xojo included as one of the supported languages. The way it works is that you write your code in the web browser, click the compile button, and then your code is sent up to the server where it is run through the appropriate compiler, and the results are sent back to your browser. Perhaps the Xojo IDE could be rigged-up with a script on the server, or maybe Xojo could provide a specialized version of their compiler to these sites.
I’m speaking of current times. I learned Fortran in CS-101, but today the kids learn Python. Today’s average mobile developer probably has never even heard of Fortran or Cobol. I wonder how many apps in the App Store were written with those languages. Maybe a tiny handful.
But the back end services those apps connect to may very well be
Esp if its a banking app or something that from a company thats been around for a long time
Theres still a lot of cobol in use
Yes, on legacy systems being phased out. For example, the NYSE ditched their COBOL system for Ab Initio’s parallel-processing platform. There may be some new COBOL programmers being trained-up, but I doubt that many coders consider that a wise career choice.
COBOL programmers used to be a commodity. Given the low popularity of COBOL of late, they have become a specialty resource, with rates set accordingly. It is perhaps a wiser move than it seems at first glance.
Lets just say sometimes knowing a legacy technology is a handy thing
For the whole Y2K business I literally replaced a team of 9 people because I knew : Adabas/Natural, C & Sybase (old and new stuff)
So I charged a commensurate rate
The report I linked to basically confirms this
In summary “old guys dont understand the new tech and new kids dont want to learn the old stuff”
But those who do … ka-ching !
Well, this thread has taken a surprising turn. There I was putting forth an idea to evangelize Xojo, only to be convinced by the community how fabulous COBOL is! But it’s true. There is way more demand for COBOL developers than Xojo developers. Whenever I do this Google search, it comes up zero:
xojo site:craigslist.org
Searching on other jobs sites yields the same thing: at any given moment, there approximately zero job openings for Xojo programmers. But if you do the same search on COBOL, boom! Hundreds of jobs:
