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From YouTube: Back to the Future with COBOL - John Mertic, The Linux Foundation & Sudharsana Srinivasan, IBM
Description
Back to the Future with COBOL - John Mertic, The Linux Foundation & Sudharsana Srinivasan, IBM
Mainframe applications are the lifeblood of the global economy. COBOL is the lifeblood of those applications. Yet few people realise or acknowledge the profound impact the COBOL language has had over its 60 year history. Showcasing a brand new OMP Working Group, this session reveals COBOL's secret history and the efforts of OMP and others to bring COBOL's value to the public eye. The session will cover - 1. COBOL's enduring value - how it stood the test of time 2. Recent trends to demonstrate COBOL's ongoing popularity 3. The work of the OMP in promoting COBOL
For more Continuous Delivery Foundation content, check out our blog: https://cd.foundation/blog/
A
Hello,
everyone
welcome
to
today's
session
back
to
the
future
with
koval.
My
name
is
john
murtik,
I'm
director
of
program
management
for
the
linux
foundation
and
the
director
of
the
open,
mainframe
project
and
I'm
joined
here
by
sadarshna
siddharvasan
here,
who
is
the
project
lead
for
the
cobalt
programming
course,
but
sedation
I'd
like
to
take
it
from
you?
Let
you
introduce
yourself
more.
B
Thank
you,
john.
It
is
such
an
honor
and
pleasure
to
be
talking
about
cobol
with
you
here
on
the
for
cdcon.
My
name
is
sudhashnashiniwasan.
I
am
an
ibm
z
program
manager
and
also
have
the
joy
of
being
a
chair
for
the
open,
mainframe
projects,
cobalt
programming
course.
So
before
we
dive
into
talking
more
about
cobalt,
I'd
like
to
ask
a
few
questions
to
our
audience.
B
You
know
things
like.
Have
you
used
your
a
credit
card?
Have
you
used
an
atm
machine?
You
know
to
withdraw
cash
or
even
book
a
flight
or
check
in
for
a
flight.
The
question
is:
I'm
trying
to
see
if
you
think
you've
used
cobalt
in
your
life
and
if
you
answered
yes
for
any
of
these
questions
or
probably
all
of
them,
the
answer
is:
you
have
used
cobol,
because
cobol
is
a
business
application
language
and
that
is
why
it
is
so
powerful
to
run
and
drive
the
global
economy.
B
So
when
we
are
talking
about
cobalt,
it
is,
it
is
60
years
old
that
is
true,
that
is
true,
and
over
the
60
years
of
its
lifetime,
we've
had
over
200
billion
lines
of
code
written
and
in
production
today.
So
this
is
actively
used
code,
and
you
know
over
this
period
of
time
as
well,
there's
been
a
lot
of
investment
put
into
building
these
cobalt
applications.
B
So
with
with
these
stats,
I
think
it
makes
it
very
pretty
clear
that
without
cobol
we
would
be
having
a
very
hard
time
doing
going
about
our
everyday
lives,
and
you
know
just
living
life.
The
way
we've
learned
to
live
today.
I
also
like
to
always
point
out:
you
know
a
programming.
Language
is
not
a
fashion
statement.
B
It's
a
very
powerful
comment
that
professor
tuk
ayong
made
when
he
kicked
off
our
cobalt
friday's
webinar
series
last
year
and
it
stuck
with
me.
It
is
so
true
and
cobalt
is
really
good
at
what
it
does,
which
is
business
transactions
and
processing
of
those
business
transactions.
So
that
is
why
it
is
what
it
is
today
and
has
been
all
of
this
time.
Next
slide,
john.
B
Everyone
was
suddenly
talking
about
cobol,
and
you
know,
we've
heard
this
news
a
lot
about
the
new
jersey
governor
talking
about
how
the
60
year
old
programming
language
has
been
the
cause
and
the
reason
why
some
of
the
unemployment
processing
wasn't
working,
and
so
everyone
now
is
very
aware
of
cobalt,
talking
of
which
cobalt
stands
for
common
business
oriented
language,
so
something
that
right
there
in
its
name.
It
talks
about
what
its
purpose
is.
It
really
does
it
well,
which
is
business
transaction
processing.
B
B
The
ish
issue
was
seen
as
we
don't
have
cobol
skills.
What
I'd
like
to
also
highlight
is
when
we
talk
about
skills
and
skills
gap.
Think
about
you
know,
manufacturing,
as
always
is
has
skills
gap,
and
these
are
some
articles
that
I
found
as
of
2021,
and
cyber
security
is
top
of
mind.
It
is
such
an
important
aspect
that
we
all
need
to
be
part
of
our
lives,
and
we
are
still
talking
about
cyber
security
skills
gap.
B
The
next
one
is
the
cobalt
check
program
and
also
a
cobol
working
group,
where
you
know
folks
come
to
be
able
to
come
together
and
figure
out
how
how
else
and
how
well
can
we
build
that
next
generation
of
skills
for
cobalt
so
with
with
all
of
this
happening
in
the
front
end?
What
was
also
happening
in
the
back
is
ibm
and
some
of
our
clients
and
arc,
which
is
american
river
college
here
in
sacramento,
california,
were
working
on
a
cobalt
course
that
was
already
well
underway
and
back
in
april
2020.
B
I'm
sure
john
remembers
that
day,
like
it
was
yesterday
14th
of
april
2020,
we
landed
the
cobalt
programming
course
as
an
open
mainframe
project.
It
was,
I
think,
one
of
the
most
exciting
days
of
my
career.
This
is
the
team
that
was
part
of
the
the
residency
that
you
know
put
the
course
together.
I
want
to
say
in
record
time-
and
these
are
our
smes
who
are
behind
the
awesome
course
that
thousands
of
our
learners
have
been
able
to
use
leverage
and
build
a
learning
community
around
cobalt
next
slide
john.
B
So
what
is
our
mission
with
the
cobalt
programming
course?
It
is
to
attract
that
next
generation
of
learners
to
add
cobol
to
their
tech
toolkit,
and
I
always
like
to
highlight
here
we're
talking
about
adding
cobol
because
oftentimes
I
get
a
question
of,
should
I
learn
cobol
or
java
or
node.js,
and
my
response
to
that
is
it's
not
a
question
of
either
or
right.
It's
about
having
cobalt
as
well.
You
know
you
need
java,
you
would
probably
need
your
node.js
just.
B
Similarly,
if
you
add
cobol,
it
opens
up
a
whole
new
whole
new
industry,
and
you
know
opportunities
to
you.
So
definitely
attracting
that
next
generation
of
learners
is
the
core
mission.
Improved
learning
experience
so
you'll
see,
as
we
talk
more
about
the
course
itself.
A
lot
of
the
tooling
is
you
know
about
bringing
in
comfortable
modern,
tooling,
in
the
sense
that,
tooling,
that
our
learners
are
already
familiar
with
and
creating
and
engaging
with
an
enthusiastic
community
of
learners.
B
B
So
what
are
the
benefits
of
learning
cobol
then,
with
over
2
billion
lines
of
code
in
execution,
and
it
is
the
most
you
know
it
is
the
language
that
runs
the
world's
economy
today,
so
modern,
tooling,
ability
to
work
on
high
visibility
projects,
and
it
is
like,
I
said,
a
key
differentiator
in
your
professional
profile.
It's
part,
it's
definitely
an
in-demand
skill
set
so,
like
I
said,
add
cobalt
to
your
tech
toolkit.
It's
not
a
question
of
either
or
next
slide,
john.
B
B
So
the
part
one
of
the
course
really
talks
about
all
of
this
tooling
right.
It's
there's
some
setup
to
be
done,
so
it
talks
about
the
tooling
getting
set
up,
getting
your
zoe
set
up
and
having
your
instances
up
and
ready
to
go
and
part.
Two
of
the
course
is
where
we
get
to
the
meat
of
it.
It's
the
basics
of
cobol
talks
about
the
various
divisions
of
cobalt.
How
do
you
handle
fi?
Do
file
handling
something
that's
very
unique
to
cobalt
around
intrinsic
functions.
B
B
B
Another
big
excitement
for
our
team
is
also
being
able
to
bring
on
board
two
summer
mentees,
so
we're
part
of
the
open
mainframe
project
summer
mentorship
project
you'll,
hear
john
talk
more
about
it
a
little
later
and
we're
excited
to
be
able
to
bring
on
board
two
mentees
to
work
with
us
in
the
summertime
and
work
on
updating
the
course
content.
As
I
said,
we
have
a
sister
project
zoe
that
is
constantly
evolving
as
well,
reflecting
updates
from
that
implementing
key
strategic.
B
B
B
We
couldn't
do
this
without
their
support
and
help
on
this
programming
course.
Here.
Martin
keane
was
one
of
the
smes
as
well
on
the
cobalt
programming
course
from
ibm
and,
of
course,
john
murdick,
who
is
from
the
linux
foundation,
is
part
of
our
tsc.
So
we
cut
we
meet
on
a
monthly
basis,
but
also
have
community
tse
calls
with
the
community
of
learners
on
a
quarterly
basis.
So,
if
you're
really
interested
want
to
learn
more
about
this
programming,
language
come
join.
B
Us
here
get
started
in
your
learning
journey
and
also
attend
our
tsc
calls,
which
are
quarterly
on
the
second
tuesday,
all
right
so
to
get
started
here
are
some
of
some
of
the
cobalt
learning
resources,
the
github
repo
link
to
the
open,
mainframe
projects,
cobalt
programming
course.
What
we
had
also
done
is
alongside
releasing
this
course.
As
a
self.
You
know
self
paced
learning
opportunity
on
omp.
B
Some
people
learn
better
in
a
video
format.
So
there
is
a
video
course
of
the
content
available
on
both
ibm's
digital
learning
platform
and
on
coursera,
so
it
just
gives
you
different
ways
to
get
started.
Learning
cobol
next
slide,
john
and
a
couple
of
downstream
projects
which
I
think
are
huge
resources
for
anyone.
Who's
learning
cobalt
to
have
handy
is
the
cobalt
resource
hub.
That
was
that
was
something
we
worked
on
back
on
and
available
on
developer.ibm.com
and
the
cobol
fridays
webinar
series.
This
is
certainly
a
wealth
of
information.
B
We
have
smes
from
around
the
industry
where
various
you
know,
industries
come
and
talk
about,
cobol
from
basics,
to
the
the
more
of
the
middleware
interactions
to
modernizing
your
cobol
applications
to
having
client
stories.
So
this
is
a
very
good
series
to
have
at
hand
to
add
to
your
cobol
learning
journey.
B
These
were
the
top
five
and
guess
what
I
think
the
chart
speaks
for
itself.
Enterprise
computing,
which
is
you
know,
a
lot
of
which
is
driven
by
some,
though
the
cobol
programs
that
run-
and
you
know,
run
our
daily
lives
stood
out,
and
you
know
outperforms
on
all
of
the
five
categories
that
students
perceive
and
want
to
see
in
their
careers
in
technology,
so
something
to
keep
in
mind
right
how
cobalt
is
very
impactful
in
our
everyday
lives.
So
with
that,
I
think
john.
Do
you
yes
want
to
take
over.
A
Absolutely
thank
you
sadarshna
arshna,
for
really
a
great
overview
of
the
work
this
community
does,
and
I
think
the
question
comes
to
us,
this
cobalt
programming
course.
You
know:
why
does
it
fit
into
the
open
mainframe
project?
Why
is
cobalt
found
its
home
here
and
you
know
when
we
and
what
are
the
other
things
around
cobol
that
one
could
look
into,
and
I
think
it's
important
to
look
at
really
the
belief
points
of
the
open,
mainframe
project.
A
The
open
mainframe
project
has
been
around
for
nearly
six
years
now,
and
you
know
these
four
points
here
I
have
on
the
screen,
I
think
really
line
up
where
everyone
in
the
project
from
people
in
the
community
technical
leadership
governing
board.
You
know
in
sponsoring
members
believe-
and
you
know
they
look
at
leading
organizations
the
customers
that
they're
working
with
are
changing
their
view
and
they've
changed
their
view.
A
The
technology
infrastructure,
it's
not
the
cost
of
doing
business,
but
it's
a
way
to
have
a
competitive
advantage
and
the
mainframe
fits
within
that
it
fits
in
those
design.
Principles
mainframes
are
designed
with
the
principles
of
security,
stability,
scalability
and
performance,
and
organizations
see
that
as
very
critical
to
their
overall
applica
app
deployment
strategy.
A
The
mainframe
fitting
in
this
world
is
a
huge
important
point,
because
these
enterprises
are
hybrid.
You
know,
you
know
30
40
60
50
years
ago.
They
might
have
had
a
lot
of
cobalt
and
a
lot
of
that
cobalt
is
still
existing
and
we're
seeing
is
continued
being
invested
in,
but
they
have
so
many
different
ways
that
applications
are
deployed.
So
many
different
ways
that
applications
are
interacting
from
cloud
to
distributed
computing
to
edge
nodes.
A
All
of
these
pieces
and
the
mainframe
sitting
within
there
is
crucial
and
you're
at
cdcon,
and
you
know
you
know
from
a
devops
perspective
that
devops
has
really
been
driven
through
open
source,
it's
bigger
than
any
one
vendor
out
there,
and
the
same
that
this
community
believes
is
true
as
well.
Achieving
this
interoperability
with
the
rest
of
the
enterprise
happens
through
a
community
in
open
source,
and
this
really
sits
as
the
vision
of
the
open
mainframe
project,
is
to
deliver
that
and
set
the
standard
for
these
enterprise
class
systems.
A
That
siddhartha
speaks
to
and
the
project
focuses
on
building
that
community
by
eliminating
the
barriers
demonstrating
the
value,
strengthening
those
collaboration,
points
and
being
a
home
for
those
open
source
projects
that
are
getting
towards
that
vision.
And
these
are
the
projects
we're
talking
about
here,
and
you
see
several
in
these
space
here.
You
see
some
that
very
much
apply
to
the
zos
community
projects
like
zoe
and
polycephaly.
A
A
Open
mainframe
project
drives
the
innovation
in
the
space
because
they
see
they're
the
home
for
technologies
that
are
pulling
that
gap
together,
they're
connecting
the
mainframe
more
tightly
with
the
rest
of
enterprise
I.t
and
is
driven
driving
efforts
like
this
through
open
source.
That's
helping
bring
all
of
that
piece
together
and
it's
not
just
as
much
of
driving
it's
not
just
as
much
of
hosting
projects,
but
it's
hosting
them
in
a
sustainable
manner.
And
you
probably
hear
this
a
lot
during
cdecon.
A
You've
probably
seen
this
chart
a
few
different
times
that
the
sustainability
aspect
in
open
source
is
critical.
The
projects
that
are
invested
are
the
ones
that
are
used
out
there.
In
industry
and
as
siddharth
have
pointed
out,
billions
and
billions
of
lines
of
code
of
cobalt
is
out
there.
This
is
a
key
point
for
our
industry
and
being
able
to
have
a
sustainability
model.
It's
a
key
point
for
our
society,
not
just
industry,
our
society
to
function
and
having
a
sustainability
model
in
place
to
make
that
work
is
what
helps
drive
cobalt
forward.
A
It's
what
helps
drive
our
enterprises
forward
and
it
helps
keep
our
society
sustained
for
the
long
haul.
So
I
and
it's
all
possible
because
of
organizations
like
you
see
on
the
screen
here.
These
are
folks
that
are
deep
into
the
mainframe
space.
There
are
vendors
that
work
across
multiple
different
spaces,
they're
universities
and
they're,
the
ones
that
are
making
the
impact.
These
43
organizations
18
hosted
projects
and
downstream
the
contributions
in
the
thousands
and
contributors
well
over
a
thousand
tens
of
thousands
of
contributions.
A
A
So
I
want
to
call
attention
to
a
few
resources
for
you
to,
if
you're
sitting
in
here
and
you're
thinking,
how
do
I
advance
sort
of
my
journey?
How
do
I
begin
to
learn
more
about
what's
going
on
in
this
space
here,
because
this
is
very
much
a
teaser
here,
open
mainframe
summit
is
later
in
the
year,
we're
actually
thrilled
that
the
cd
foundation
is
a
sponsor
of
this
event.
We
really
thank
them
for
this.
A
Looking
at
where
the
trends
were
the
projects,
you
know
executive,
insights
and
and
really
showcasing
how
the
mainframe
is
connecting
back
and
and
really
that
citizen
within
enterprise
computing.
You
can
learn
more
at
the
virtual
event,
so
you
can
enjoy
it
from
the
comfort
of
your
own
home,
just
like
a
cdcon
here,
learn
more
about
it
at
the
link
below,
and
this
is
in
september,
22nd
and
23rd.
A
Another
thing
I
want
to
call
out
as
a
great
resource
is
our
I
am
a
mainframer
podcast,
and
you
know
one
of
the
challenges
not
only
just
with
mainframe
with
the
mainframe
industry,
but
I
think
cobalt
as
well-
and
I
think
you
know
siddhartha
really
touched
on
this.
A
bit
is
there's
a
perception
of
who
are
the
people
that
are
still
writing
this.
Who
are
the
people
still
involved
in
this
and
oftentimes?
A
The
stereotypical
answer
might
be
someone
at
the
end
of
their
career,
getting
ready
to
retire
and
the
reality
is
that's
not
the
case.
There's
young
people,
there's
old
people,
there's
people
from
different
races,
gender
sexes,
the
whole
nine
yards
and
they're
all
a
part
of
this
mainframe
ecosystem,
and
this
monthly
podcast
series
talks
all
about
that.
It
showcases
the
people
that
are
in
this.
A
It
talks
about
why
they
got
in
it,
why
they
find
this
a
valuable
industry,
what
they
have
learned
from
it,
and
and
really,
where
they're,
seeing
this
going
forward
in
the
amazing
stuff
that
they're
doing
go
check
this
out,
and
we
have
such
a
wide,
a
group
of
people
that
we're
interviewing.
Here
I
mean
everyone
for
more
awesome:
mori
who's,
the
gm
of
ibm,
z
and
greg
glocko
who's,
the
gm
of
mainframe
for
broadcom
all
the
way
to
students
who
are
just
getting
started
in
this
space.
A
So
it's
it's
really
an
interesting
podcast
go
check
it
out.
It's
on
pretty
much
every
podcast
platform.
You
can
come
across
and
there's
just
tons
of
resources
here
as
you're
looking
to
dig
into
this
more.
You
know
we're
on
various
social
media
platforms.
We
have
a
lot
of
you
know,
content.
We
drive
up
through
youtube
community
forums
and
then
we
also
have
an
interactive
slack
community
as
well.
A
So
if
you
want
to
learn
more
about
the
project,
definitely
go
check
out
openmainframeproject.org.
You
can
learn
about
any
of
our
hosted
projects
and
working
groups
as
well
openmainframeproject.org
and
if
you're,
someone
who
is
seeing
value
in
this
space-
and
you
see
an
opportunity
to
you
know-
be
an
investing
person
around
membership
opportunities.
We
also
have
those
available
and
you
can
contact
us
for
more
on
that
and
with
that
I
want
to
thank
everyone
and
we'll
open
the
floor
for
q.
B
B
B
So,
while,
while
we're
waiting
for
folks
to
get
started
with
asking
questions
in
case,
you
might
have
missed
it,
I
just
wanted
to
quickly
share
the
link
to
the
open,
mainframe
project
course.
So
you
can
have
it
handy
and
you
know
ready
to
go
when
you're
ready
to
explore
and
learn
cobol.
As
I
said
as
as
an
additional
programming
language
that
you
can
add
to
your
tech
toolkit.
B
All
right,
yes,
there
are
some
examples
and
I
think
within
ibm.
There
is
a
lot
of
work
being
done
for
cobol
and
running
it
with
tools
such
as,
and
you
know,
using
the
ci
cd
pipeline
right
now.
Those
caught-
I
don't-
have
an
example
handy
to
share
with
you,
but
I'm
happy
to
dig
a
little
deeper
and
get
back.
B
Absolutely
and
while
we're
waiting-
and
you
know
for
other
questions-
let
me
also
add
another
good
place
for
our.
You
know,
listeners
and
folks,
who
are
really
eager
to
learn
more
to
learn
more
about
how
our
clients
are.
You
know
leveraging
some
of
the
modernization
and
you
know
doing
ci,
cd
leveraging,
modern
tools
and
other
modernization.
B
Let
me
drop
a
quick
link
to
for
ibm
z
day,
especially
if
you
would
like
to
be.
You
know,
learn
more,
do
join
us
on
our
community
and
you
know
we
will
definitely
be
dropping
more
information
about
it
as
we
have
on
our
community.
So
that
would
be
a
great
place
for
you
to
learn
more
about
that
as
well.
B
All
right,
if
there
are
no
other
specific
questions,
as
I
I
shared
a
couple
of
links
to
get
you
all
started.
Thank
you
again
for
joining
us
for
back
to
the
future
with
cobalt
and
look
forward
to
seeing
you
on
the
on
the
on
the
course
website
and
also
on
our
community.
So
you
can
learn
more
about
the
upcoming
conferences
and
to
learn
more
about
how
we
are
you
know,
bringing
all
of
this
together
around
cobol
around
modernization.