In this episode, we're talking about COBOL, with Pete Dashwood, CEO of PRIMA Computing, a company that helps other companies move off of COBOL. Pete talks about what it was like to be a programmer working in COBOL in the 60’s, what the programming language is good at, and the current state of COBOL.

Show Links

• DevDiscuss (sponsor)
• DevNews (sponsor)
• New Relic (sponsor)
• Retool (sponsor)
• Microsoft 30 Days to Learn It (sponsor)
• PRIMA Computing
• COBOL
• COBOL, a 60-year-old computer language, is in the COVID-19 spotlight
• High-level programming language
• Assembly language
• Java
• C#
• Python
• IBM Basic Assembly Language and successors
• Mainframe computer
• BASIC
• PL/I
• Von-Neumann Model
• Object-oriented programming
• Batch processing
• Cretaceous COBOL Can Spawn Jurassic Java
• Object-oriented COBOL
• Commodore 64
• Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 24 Hours
• Straight and Crooked Thinking

Pete Dashwood

Pete Dashwood is the CEO of PRIMA Computing, which helps companies migrate off of COBOL. He started programming computers before what most people call a "computer" was invented. He started with punched cards and paper tape, and much of the history of computing is the history of his career.