1. Many databases in the 1960s and 1970sstored dates with two digits for the year to save space. Their developers reasoned that those databases would be replaced long before they had to store years beginning with 20. That didn't happen. A major worldwide effort was needed in the late 1990s to deal with the so called Y2K problem. Some databases were modified, others were replaced, and others received temporary fixes to keep working until 2020 or 2030. Does this experience suggest anything about how long COBOL programs will be around?
2. It has been suggested that COBOL programmers will soon belong to one of two groups: those who are about to retire and those who saw the opportunities created by those retirements in other words, the very old (for active members of the workforce) and the very young. The large group in the middle considered
COBOL old hate and didn't see the same opportunity, so they learned other languages. Should the middle group try to learn COBOL now? Should their employers try to train them to program in COBOL?