alt Hacker NewsShell script is memory safe too, but you don't write anything longer than 100 lines in it for a reason.
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duskwuff • 10/01/2024
Besides - standard COBOL is only "memory-safe" by way of not supporting dynamic memory allocation. Like, at all. Even strings are stored in fixed-length arrays.
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
When you bank, COBOL (40% of online banks). When you use the ATM, COBOL (95% of ATM transactions). When you travel, COBOL (96% of airline ticket bookings). Healthcare, COBOL. Social Security, COBOL. Point of Sale, COBOL. IRS, COBOL. Pension funds? COBOL. Hotel bookings? COBOL. Payroll programs? COBOL.
It is estimated that there is 800 billion lines of COBOL code in production systems in daily use. That is a bit more than 100 lines.
This was why Y2K genuinely scared everyone and was a very real problem. The only reason we can look back at it and laugh now is that an army of engineers sat down and rewrote it all in the nick of time.