COBOLers

Thanks for reading The Chip Letter. Note this is a part-free and part paid post where we discuss what we mean by ‘legacy’ systems and, after the paywall, DOGE’s efforts at the US Social Security Administration.

life←{⊃1 ⍵ ∨.∧ 3 4 = +/ +/ 1 0 ¯1 ∘.⊖ 1 0 ¯1 ⌽¨ ⊂⍵}

Almost three decades ago, I came across a comment in an APL program running on an IBM mainframe1:

I’ve no idea what this code does. It seems to work though, so I’m going to leave it be.

I can still remember my, slightly visceral, reaction. That can’t be right. Surely, if the code is so obscure, then we need to refactor it.

However, I knew, by repute, the person who’d written that comment. That reputation was that he was exceedingly bright. I also understood that he was a much, much better APL programmer than me. I concluded that he knew better than me on this particular decision.

After around sixty seconds of thought I decided to follow his example, and leave it be.

I still feel a little guilty about this.

I was reading the APL program because APL had been deemed to be a ‘legacy’ system at the firm where I worked. I’d been given the job of transferring the functionality it provided it into a proprietary software package running on PCs.

Talking of PCs, a few days ago the following email arrived in my inbox.

This is Windows 10 running on my Microsoft Surface laptop, purchased all the way back in …. 2019.

Is this the same Windows 10 that a Microsoft spokesman talked about as follows?

Windows 10 is going to be the last major version of the operating service (OS), according to a Microsoft developer.

Speaking at the company’s Ignite conference this week, developer evangelist Jerry Nixon said: "Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10."

Instead of new major versions, the product will be improved in regular instalments and automatic updates, much akin to apps and modern browsers. Source

Windows 11 was released in October 2021, so some users will have had precisely four years of support for Windows 10. Plus four years of being ‘encouraged’ to ‘upgrade’ to Windows 11.

In fairness to Microsoft, we all change our plans from time to time. I’ve