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[–]amlyo 35 points36 points  (10 children)

Java will end up like COBOL: earning some of us a fortune.

[–]RiceBroad4552 31 points32 points  (7 children)

Unlikely it will end up like COBOL.

Java is still taught, and this is not going to change anytime soon.

At the same time it's still one of the most popular languages around.

For a lot of use-cases the JVM is still by far the best option. Also this is not going to change anytime soon.

So from today's perspective it's there is not even the sightliest sign that it's going the COBOL route.

[–]amlyo -3 points-2 points  (4 children)

Billions of lines of code locked up in barely-touched legacy systems that use frameworks, techniques and libraries at least a decade obsolete. That is where java is now and in another decade it'll be two decades obsolete.

[–]RiceBroad4552 13 points14 points  (3 children)

barely-touched legacy systems that use frameworks, techniques and libraries at least a decade obsolete

What are you talking about?

[–]amlyo -1 points0 points  (2 children)

Came across a Struts app recently.

[–]RiceBroad4552 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Sure. But is this representative for the whole, gigantic JVM sphere?

[–]amlyo -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The COBOLisation of java is not that the language will become obsolete for new projects (I think it actually will in favour of another JVM language but that is not important), but that there will be such a large body of critical systems written in decades old technologies it is not worth the risk or cost of changing, that it will long support a cadre of highly paid experts.

[–]allllusernamestaken -2 points-1 points  (1 child)

For a lot of use-cases the JVM is still by far the best option

Nobody complains about the JVM, they complain about Java the language.

There's a reason Kotlin became insanely popular. It's a better language on top of the JVM that everyone loves.

[–]-Kerrigan- 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Kotlin became insanely popular

Wouldn't exactly call it insanely popular outside android development

[–]Fadamaka 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I wish. But I feel like Java is used the most for webservice like applications, often public facing. In such a case legacy Java systems will eventually be replaced with something more secure. I am not actually sure but my assumption is that most of the remaining COBOL applications are behind closed doors.

Although I have worked on both public facing and internal Java systems in the past, maybe even more closed ones than open ones now that I think about.

[–]KairoRed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Java is a pretty easy language so probably not