# Antique software sighted in the wild! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 22, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780 "2009-10-22T20:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/1 "2009-10-22T20:45:17Z")
My wife is in training for a customer service job for one of the large insurance companies. The other people in the class, all of whom are considerably younger than she, were all cocky about how they had used SAP or Oracle and were ready for whatever IT might throw at them. Then they reached the instruction, “To submit the data in the field press the ‘NL’ key.” “What’s a ‘NL’ key?” was heard around the room. Wife did not want to give away how old she is by saying, “It means ‘new line,’” so she ventured a tentative, “Maybe if we press the ‘Enter’ key it will do the same thing.” However, when there were other mutterings she did offer to the instructor that her friend helped write the software and is between contracts, so if they needed and help they could call her. Yes, they took her number. No, wife did not mention that her friend is 67. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/2 "2009-10-22T21:02:33Z")
Did they fact that they were all seating in front of teletype machines clue them in? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/3 "2009-10-22T21:07:01Z")
Heh. Does that mean I can make consulting fees off of PROFS and CICS? I have an Apple II running for shits in our software lab. It’s got LodeRunner, Hard Hat Mack, Magic Johnson Larry Bird One-On-One, (shattering the glass backboard and getting the janitor to clean it up is still awesome), BankStreet Writer and MultiPlan. And by “It’s got” I mean the disks are sitting next to it. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/4 "2009-10-22T22:23:08Z")
A few months ago, Mr. Athena finished up a ten+ year Fortran programming gig, for a major investment bank. Yup, they still used Fortran. I think that’s the real key to the financial meltdown. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/5 "2009-10-22T22:41:16Z")
[QUOTE=Morbo] Heh. Does that mean I can make consulting fees off of PROFS and CICS? [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Athena] A few months ago, Mr. Athena finished up a ten+ year Fortran programming gig, for a major investment bank. Yup, they still used Fortran. I think that’s the real key to the financial meltdown. [/QUOTE] Hey, I resemble those remarks! We’re a CICS shop, and we’ve been doing internal training to teach people Fortran and Cobol because nobody is teaching it in the outside world. These young kids today might be whizzes with Ruby on Rails and Ajax, but just ask them if their application can handle 4 million financial transactions per second, and they just start whimpering. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/6 "2009-10-23T01:04:10Z")
My brother is still using Quattro Pro in his accounting business. Admitted, he is gradually converting all of the spreadsheets to Excel. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/7 "2009-10-23T01:28:58Z")
I believe my comany’s primary software is cobol-based. Primitive, but apparently bulletproof. Increasingly so as the knowledge to undermine it abates with the knowledge to update it. Ya, I’m with an enormous insurance company. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/8 "2009-10-23T02:03:44Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > I believe my comany’s primary software is cobol-based. > > Primitive, but apparently bulletproof. Increasingly so as the knowledge to undermine it abates with the knowledge to update it. Heh—kinda reminds me of Turtledove’s _Worldwar_ series. With the aliens trying to fight human technology that’s too primitive to disable with high-tech means. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/9 "2009-10-23T02:39:55Z")
Say what you will about COBOL, but there was never another language a rookie could follow as easily, though he’d fall asleep now and then. It was the Bulwer-Lytton of programming languages, but with less punctuation. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/10 "2009-10-23T02:47:47Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > My brother is still using Quattro Pro in his accounting business. I’ve said it before: NO spreadsheet gives you a cleaner CSV file that Quattro. And whatever you are using to dick around with a CSV file, and kids these days have no idea how useful raw ASCII data can be, the cleaner the file the better. ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/11 "2009-10-23T06:12:27Z")
My brother’s a tax consultant :- a long time ago he wrote himself a set of useful macros in Lotus 123. I forget the exact version of 123, but it was from the time when you invoked it’s menus with the slash key. He still uses his macros, and everytime his IT department replaces his PC he doesn’t sign off on the new machine until they’ve installed a compatible version of 123 and got his macros running on it. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/12 "2009-10-23T14:08:26Z")
About 15 years ago, I was a temp for an association of professionals; their mainframe software dated from 1972. And the terminals that accessed the mainframe were encased in wood! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/13 "2009-10-23T14:14:41Z")
Nope: Enter is “carriage return” or control-M. New line is a control-J. Clearly shoulda typed that. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/14 "2009-10-23T15:47:58Z")
> [@williambaskerville](#): > > My brother’s a tax consultant :- a long time ago he wrote himself a set of useful macros in Lotus 123. I forget the exact version of 123, but it was from the time when you invoked it’s menus with the slash key. > > He still uses his macros, and everytime his IT department replaces his PC he doesn’t sign off on the new machine until they’ve installed a compatible version of 123 and got his macros running on it. My girlfriend still uses Lotus 123 (Millennium Edition, I think) and still invokes all the fancy stuff with the slash key instead of using the mouse. (All that ancient legacy stuff still works, apparently). ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antique-software-sighted-in-the-wild/514780/15 "2009-10-23T16:53:23Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > I believe my comany’s primary software is cobol-based. > > Primitive, but apparently bulletproof. Increasingly so as the knowledge to undermine it abates with the knowledge to update it. > > Ya, I’m with an enormous insurance company. Preach it. I used to work for an enormous insurance company. I laughed like a loon when they indefinitely postponed a project to update the software to something more modern. Yeah, like it’s going to get cheaper to do so in the future.