• InvaderDJ@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    81
    ·
    9 months ago

    Imagine both the annoyance and job security having to manage MS-DOS and 3.1 systems for a railroad would entail.

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      I would love it so much. I’d feel right at home. I miss sitting in my room and learning everything I could about DOS. That was the best time I ever had with computers.

      I once built, setup, and maintained about 20 computers for a Christian school for free just because I loved doing it so much.

      I wish I still had that enthusiasm for tech.

    • Syndic@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Frankly that’s nothing. In the worst case a train won’t start, which for DB really isn’t something unusual. It’s far more disturbing how the whole global financial market sometimes rely on code that’s still written in COBOL.

      • maness300@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        9 months ago

        rely on code that’s still written in COBOL.

        Does this really matter? It’s more of a maintenance issue than a functional one.

        It all gets compiled down to binary, anyways.

        • kiagam@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          9 months ago

          it matters because it is a language that few people learn, so the available talent is scarce, increasing the chance something bad happens. Keeping up with an evolving society is essential for the longevity of a service

          • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            9 months ago

            the available talent is scarce

            I have a friend who is going to take over maintenance for a smaller regional banking system in a few years. It’s mostly COBOL and the systems themselves have not been updated in like 25-30 years. He has been apprenticing under his mother who has been in charge of maintaining the infrastructure there since the late '80s.

          • pascal@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            9 months ago

            Time 2 years top, there will be an AI that converts perfectly COBOL into JavaScript.

        • Syndic@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          Well it matters when it comes to replacing ageing programmers with very few options available. It’s definitely not something taught in schools today, so one has to be very deliberately learn it.

          Don’t get me wrong, you can make a lot of money in such a position. But you also have to deal with COBOL.

    • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      Well, DOS is open source now. And that old hardware was quite reliable. Fewer moving parts, I’d expect fewer things to break.

      • Matriks404@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        Only MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 are open-sourced under MIT license, anything newer is not. These versions were pretty bare-bones, only DOS 2.0 implemented directories for example.

        Unless you mean FreeDOS, which is an open-source DOS-based operating system, which generally should work with any DOS programs/games, but it still may not be 100% compatible with some proprietary software.

        • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          9 months ago

          Yes, meant FreeDOS, and older versions of DOS. Can’t say I had issues with FreeDOS. But then again, it’s not like I use it daily.