The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) just released this report on aging technology still in mainstream use. The report is filled with horrifying examples of ancient tech driving US infrastructure.
This one is about the Department of Defense and the Strategic Automated Command and Control System:
Coordinates the operational functions of the United States’ nuclear forces, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear bombers, and tanker support aircrafts. This system runs on an IBM Series/1 Computer—a 1970s computing system— and uses 8-inch floppy disks.
And this one on the beleaguered Department of Veteran Affairs:
Automates time and attendance for employees, timekeepers, payroll, and supervisors. It is written in Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL)—a programming language developed in the 1950s and 1960s—and runs on IBM mainframes.
Astonishing.
Look on the positive side. There’s no way hackers born in the 90s are going to be able to get into that IBM Series/1 mainframe. They haven’t even seen punchcards, er. Floppies that big!
Much better than “I wondered where all those CueCat’s went…”
Regarding the COBOL, https://sourceforge.net/p/open-cobol/discussion/
Don’t look at what runs the air traffic control system in the US.
You wish those systems were written in COBOL.
Can you say Ada?
Be wary of dissing a language just because it is old. FORTRAN is still one of the best languages for running systems models (such as climate models, which the major models use).
It’s not so much about the old tech. It’s about the vanishing expertise needed to keep it running.
Heck, the Denver airport runs on OS/2.