This weekend's protests over mass government layoffs sparked a lot of chatter online, and one sign in particular caught my attention: "Hands off working COBOL code." I had to laugh, but also... yeah, that checks out.

For those of you who don't know, many federal and state systems still run on COBOL, a programming language that dates back to the 1960s. It's not flashy, but it's reliable, and it's been quietly powering payroll systems, tax processing, unemployment benefits, and more for decades. It's not unusual for older government databases to still run on mainframes using COBOL code written before most of us were born.

I'm all for modernization. I'm a database guy. I love seeing older systems get upgraded. But there's a right way to do it. Replacing core systems needs to be done carefully, methodically, and with plenty of testing. You can't just axe entire departments and hope the rest of the infrastructure magically upgrades itself overnight. That approach never ends well.

If you're old enough to remember the Y2K problem, then you know what I mean. For years, companies ignored the issue, then panicked and scrambled to update systems at the last minute. It was chaos. But it could have been avoided with better planning.

So here's the lesson of the day: if you're going to modernize old systems, great. But use a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. Plan it out. Test thoroughly. Train your people. And maybe keep a few COBOL folks around while you're at it. Because the last thing you want is to break something that was working just fine.

Also, if you don't understand what COBOL is, ask your nearest retired IT guy. He probably wrote half of it.

And yes, that protest sign made my day.

LLAP/RR

P.S. And yes, I'm old enough to have learned some COBOL in high school, along with Pascal and Fortran. Although my first language - and my first love - will always be BASIC on my TRS-80 (officially known as Color BASIC). I've still got my old CoCo in a box in my storage unit. Gonna hook it up one of these days. :)