COBOL is the asbestos of programming languages

undefined 17, 2026

Source: wired

COBOL, the 60-year-old Common Business-Oriented Language, powers vast swaths of government and financial systems, handling trillions in transactions daily. Despite its historic ubiquity, COBOL is notoriously hard to update or replace, with spaghetti code and limited modularity causing huge risks. States like New Jersey faced crises during Covid-19 due to a shortage of skilled developers. Modern AI tools aim to convert COBOL, but “JOBOL” often mimics old inefficiencies.

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