OK does anybody care any more what words mean?
Ever So Chic!
Looking around the web for “modernization” is a fascinating exercise. (And considering where I work, you can bet I do this a lot.) The term has been used to describe so many different things, in a legacy software context, that it has become virtually meaningless. It should be used only when something that is not modern gets turned into something that is modern! So simple!
For example, if your kitchen has a backsplash of textured orange tiles from the 1970’s, modernizing that kitchen means you need to get rid of those tiles, and replace them with something that is not heinously outdated. Painting over them with latex does not count. The original nasty tiles are still present.
When MicroFocus talks about modernizing, it’s exactly the same thing – they are explicitly proposing to leave your COBOL where it is, and maybe slap on a new front-end to keep the users from open revolt. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but it’s not “modernization.” Here’s the litmus test: are the nasty orange tiles still on your backsplash? Uh… yes. The Word Police should head over to MicroFocus and give them a stern talking-to.
And what about BluePhoenix, “The Legacy Modernization Company?” Most of what they do is mechanical transformations from one language to another. Put to COBOL in one end, get Java out the other end. Sounds good, doesn’t it? But look closely at that new backsplash my friends – you can still clearly see the nasty orange tiles, no matter how hard you scrub. Because when you translate source code from one language into another, you can not change the structure of that code. Computers just are not that smart yet. Give it 50 years, and maybe Artifical Intelligence will be up to the challenge. In the mean time, anyone who tells you different is lying. Again, I’m not saying there’s no value in putting your COBOL through a Java meat-grinder, especially if your mainframe is going away or something, but can you call that “modernization” and keep a straight face? Word Police: All Points Bulletin – BluePhoenix needs a dictionary.
So people, unless we love anarchy, let’s be careful what we call things.
- Tom Metzger
1 response so far ↓
frostfang // September 8, 2008 at 12:02 am |
I totally agree with this, i work in an environment where they have claim to try and modernise a 20 year old system by writing an application to ‘run over the top’ of the underlying system. Total waste of time and believe me when i say that trying to convince the the decision makers of doing something better is like peeing into the wind.