You know you are old when...Y

[Orava]

I was born in 1969 but I do not look my age some strange genetics going on there

[PFVA]

You all are so young.

I was born in 1959.

[zip accident]

You all are so young.

I was born in 1959.

1954.

I expect there's someone even older.

[Mat]

A younger engineer said "Waaaaassssssaaaaaaap" to me today a la the Budweiser commercials.
He was younger than them

I almost told him to get off my lawn before I set him up the bomb.

[gilesgoat]

I was born in 1969 but I do not look my age some strange genetics going on there

Pics or it did not happen

[Orava]

Nah, Cobol is the grandfather programming language. Although I have progressed and are well and truly Java guy now.

[venusian]

I'm old enough to remember when Java wasn't in the same group of ancient languages as COBOL.

[tufty]

I'm old enough to remember when Java wasn't in the same group of ancient languages as COBOL.

Yeah. Most of us were already old programmers when Java was brand new and "the future". Nearly 30 years ago. At that point, COBOL was … just over 30 years old.

[Kelloggs]

We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago where one of our developers (a mere stripling of a lad, at ~25, so just under half my age) said he couldn't understand what the attraction was in Cobol. I leaned over to him, and, conspiratorially, pointed out that "Bear in mind, Cobol is a language written for people who are dead..."

Which may have annoyed our current Cobol programmers, but... ah, get with the game, Granpa!

[gilesgoat]

You remember times where it was PERFECTLY NORMAL that your TV at home had still some vacuum tubes in ( not just the CRT, other tubes as well ), the TV was ONLY analog, it was "uncommon" to have a phone line ( landline ) / phone at home ( and to some extent even a TV ), public telephones where everywhere and all had rotary/pulse dialling, TV programs began a certain hour and terminate another and when there was "no programs" there was a TV test card ( "monoscope" ) playing, the concept of HOME/PERSONAL computer was still "non-existent", the internet wasn't even remotely there, "media" meant mostly radio, magazine, newspapers, you had to wait weeks sometime MONTHS to get a ( physical ) book you ordered in a bookstore.

On the "more mundane things" .. there was a shop to buy ONLY veggies/produce/fruits, one to buy ONLY meat, one to buy ONLY bread and sometime pasties/pastries, one only to buy washing equipment, soap, things for the house but NO FOOD, one to buy ONLY "general food" like pasta,canned food,etc. sometime they had some bread but it wasn't a proper bakery. When food wasn't mostly pre-packaged at all but was all sold by weight/numbers wrapped in paper and/or "wax paper", everyone had its own re-useable bag or were given paper bags ( plastic bags came much later ), there were places ( in my town ) ONLY selling fresh milk by the litre also bring-your-own-bottle for a discount. I remember a shop specialised in dishes, glasses, cutlery and a few other items.

Fun fact, in my town in Italy there's still a shop with this sign "Sacchetti, spezie, carta e spago" ( paperbags, spices, paper and string ) .. they sell just that and someway they are still in business today

Ah yes cinemas of all sizes , usually very small for today's standards, were all over the places and always in business even if sometime only opened during week ends.

[KlaxonCow]

We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago where one of our developers (a mere stripling of a lad, at ~25, so just under half my age) said he couldn't understand what the attraction was in Cobol.

I would have leaned over and pointed out "it was 1959 when COBOL was first drafted. Your alternative at that time was basically assembly language. Beginning to understand its attraction now?".

A slight simplification, there was FORTRAN and the first attempt at ALGOL a few years earlier, but it gets the point across. There was not some vast array of better alternatives out there. BASIC was still 5 years from being invented, PASCAL 11 years away.

Put COBOL in its historical context. It's 1959 and you've got to choose between assembly language, FORTRAN or COBOL. As much as I hate COBOL and actually have a soft spot for messing around in assembly languages, I can totally see myself, having a deadline on a project to reach, selecting COBOL. Just to get the job done.

The point is not COBOL itself. I agree, it's utter shite and have never liked it. The point is what were your alternatives at the time? When you realise how depressingly short that list is, and features hardly-a-better-choice-really FORTRAN, you begin to get it. As shite as it is, at the time, it was fucking amazing amongst its rival options.

[zip accident]

It is normal for programmers to hate COBOL, the point was to get code documented, programmers usually hate documenting their code, COBOL code was very nearly self documenting, which is why code illiterate managers loved it.

[F-ZeroOne]

You know what a "Texas" bar was.

[Whiteball]

I remeber a Texan bar. Quite nice but could be very tough and chewy.

[Orava]

Sunday trading laws and pub closures on Sundays.