Global perspectives on legacy systems

Summarises findings of two international workshops on legacy systems, held in conjunction with an EPSRC managed programme. Issues covered include the nature and dynamics of legacy systems, the co-evolution of software and organisations, issues around software as a technology (its engineering and its management), and organisational/people issues

Are the Needs of Industry for Data Processing Programmers Being Adequately Supported by Technical Training Programs in Oklahoma

In 1970 over 40,000 computers were in use in the United States and 1,000 more on order from manufacturers. Every major newspaper had published at least one news article or editorial about computers during 1970. These articles reported how computers function, the speed at which they function, their limitations and how they have, and are continuing to become, a complex part of the business world and social affairs of man

COBOL as a Modern Language

The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence. - Edsger Dijkstra (1) This statement may be hyperbole, but Dijkstra\u27s view on the language reflects underlying feelings about COBOL throughout the programming world. The language was created in 1959 to allow for interactivity between computation machines.(2) More than half a century later, COBOL is still used extensively in mainframes, computers designed for large-scale calculation and record processing. Numerous factors have contributed to the longevity of COBOL, including ease of use compared to its contemporaries and an upgrade to object orientation in the 1990s.(3) This longevity has also contributed to problems with COBOL. The chief criticism is that it has become difficult to learn as other programming languages become more user-friendly.(4) COBOL software tends to be verbose, even for simple tasks. It\u27s said that the average size of a COBOL program is 600 lines of code, whereas a Java program performing the same operation should be 30 lines or fewer.(5) Difficulties with the language will only increase as the workforce knowledgeable in COBOL\u27s use retire

Spartan Daily, November 8, 1978

Volume 71, Issue 47https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6406/thumbnail.jp

Feasibility study of an Integrated Program for Aerospace-vehicle Design (IPAD) system. Volume 6: Implementation schedule, development costs, operational costs, benefit assessment, impact on company organization, spin-off assessment, phase 1, tasks 3 to 8

A baseline implementation plan, including alternative implementation approaches for critical software elements and variants to the plan, was developed. The basic philosophy was aimed at: (1) a progressive release of capability for three major computing systems, (2) an end product that was a working tool, (3) giving participation to industry, government agencies, and universities, and (4) emphasizing the development of critical elements of the IPAD framework software. The results of these tasks indicate an IPAD first release capability 45 months after go-ahead, a five year total implementation schedule, and a total developmental cost of 2027 man-months and 1074 computer hours. Several areas of operational cost increases were identified mainly due to the impact of additional equipment needed and additional computer overhead. The benefits of an IPAD system were related mainly to potential savings in engineering man-hours, reduction of design-cycle calendar time, and indirect upgrading of product quality and performance

Business data processing curriculum in the community colleges and technical institutes and data processing job classifications in selected businesses and industries in North Carolina

The purposes of this study were threefold: 1. To determine the business data processing job classifications of businesses and industries in North Carolina and the knowledges and technical skills needed for each job classification. 2. To survey the community colleges and technical institutes in North Carolina to determine the current curriculums in the business data processing education programs. 3. To determine the relation of the current curriculums to the job classifications and the knowledges and technical skills needed for each job classification. Information for this study was obtained from questionnaires received from selected businesses and industries in North Carolina with computer installations and from personal interview sessions with data processing department heads in the North Carolina community colleges and technical institutes with data processing programs