Looks like some of us old computer timers (programmers, system developers, etc.)

[quixotic1]

6. Not that hard, depending...

I took a COBOL intro class in college[*] and didn't think it was all that difficult.

(Of course, the same could be said for any programming language. They're a lot like chess: basics are easy; mastery takes time.)

There are free courses available, such as this one from IBM: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/ibm-training/free-course-announcing-learning-cobol-programming-with-vscode/

[*] - Funny story some of the regulars might appreciate: On the first day of class, the instructor emphasized the importance of good structured programming practices, including descriptive variable names, useful function names, and so on. "I don't," he said, "want to see any program flow that goes: 1) initialization, 2) a miracle happens, and 3) results."

Now PERFORM was a keyword in our version of COBOL. It called a subroutine (IIRC).

Fast forward to the final project and (of course) I named the central "black-box" routine "A_MIRACLE"

Which of course meant that "PERFORM A_MIRACLE" was the calling line. Naturally, the line above was "PERFORM INITIALIZATION" and the one below was "PERFORM RESULTS".

I got an A on the project and later asked my teacher what he thought of my little joke. "Huh? I didn't even notice it."

(Le sigh. Story of my life, really.)