Save Your Pennies If You Can -- Digby

[Retrograde]

5. It's not as simple as the Dogebros think it is

Translating some code from COBOL to a more modern language? Fairly straightforward if it's a small application and you understand what you're doing. Translating a large system of code? A lot more difficult, since all the pieces have to work together. Translating a large system of code that reflects 70+ years of changes to the laws and must be backwards compatible for all the odd corner cases? If the programmers take the time to understand the laws and the current programs (I don't know for a fact, but I suspect the SSI code is a collection of programs rather than one stand-alone application) and actually design the replacement and test as they go along? I'm being optimistic and guessing a minimum of 5 years, although 10 is more reasonable. And I'm not even considering the documentation requirements, or the time and resources needed to train the new users.

I've been out of the programming game for several decades, and I'm not up to speed on current best practices (assuming there are any). It's one thing to write a game app that can be updated frequently - nobody real is hurt. Re-writing a large, complex legacy system that peoples' lives and incomes depend on is another story. I wonder what the programming equivalent of "unplanned rapid disassembly" is/