The COBOL Connection

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I would write down my experiences with learning COBOL. 
I think it deserves multiple entries because of how vast it is. Which is also something that took 
me by surprise. When you learn how to code with a modern codebase you get this intrinsic 
feeling that anything older than the newest release is subpar. In learning COBOL I learned to 
let go of that feeling. 

Now that my introduction is out of the way let me tell you about some of the growing pains I 
encountered especially when switching coding languages. Not knowing the syntax is way more 
annoying than I could ever imagine when I first started. Having previous work experience in 
another coding languages got me used to the feeling that if I wanted to accomplish something 
I already had most of the knowledge. So then when you can’t display a comma or a decimal 
dot you get really frustrated and feel like you’re incredibly incompetent. 

Thank god that we got a really good instructor. For the 10 days of intensive COBOL lessons we 
had, he kept adding tools to our skillset and bit by bit everything made sense. I finally learned 
how to display decimals and commas with edited pictures. I could finally loop again through 
perform. With everything written down like that it sounds really stupid but every new chapter 
felt more freeing. Eventually you feel the restriction that you felt in the beginning start to 
dissipate. Every tool was like an instrument and at the end everything came together in a
beautiful crescendo of COBOL. Gaining fluency in a coding language is such a satisfying 
process. 

I know I used the word fluency in my last sentence and I can already hear people mocking me, 
“Fluent in 10 days? Yeah right”. And I agree, I’m well aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect and
if I draw the equivalence to a spoken language, then I’d call myself somewhat fluent. I learned 
the language and I could save myself in daily conversation, but I wouldn’t be able to 
understand everything. I would describe most COBOL developers in action today with more 
than 5 years of experience as COBOL natives. They understand the intricacies of the language, 
they have an understanding of it like people have of their mother tongue. 
I know I still have a really long way to go on this journey but I hope to eventually also become 
a COBOL native.

Until I write again,
Lennie Busschots