^ this This lame excuse for not rewriting code gets used too often by people who don't know how to program. COBOL is not ancient magic. You don't need to touch it if you simply build a new system from the requirements as was said above. The real reason they don't want to do that is that a rewrite will expose how little they actually know about the current system and the actual rules and logic that govern it. A new system will shine light on the fuckery that was put in the original system to do the things they want hidden. A good team of non-pajeet programmers (i.e. straight White men) can replace this old code in a year or two, but that would, again, expose the fuckery in the system. They will live with the COBOL because it hides the bodies.