Post AR5HTabnFqAxOh75qS by allafarce@hachyderm.io
 (DIR) More posts by allafarce@hachyderm.io
 (DIR) Post #AR5GkFe4LgkVLjYicy by allafarce@hachyderm.io
       2022-12-28T23:59:33Z
       
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       A curious thought: has there been any attempt to set up virtual replicas of COBOL mainframes as a lower-risk environment for people to learn?I'm thinking about, for example, an actual production system, but with certain sensitive data elements anonymized.
       
 (DIR) Post #AR5GkG50jWIehIAEca by harrisj@hachyderm.io
       2022-12-29T00:05:00Z
       
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       @allafarce deidentification is considered still kinda risky for external sharing (risk of mosaic effects) but I hear you on this
       
 (DIR) Post #AR5GkGVb8fZE1kbT3w by allafarce@hachyderm.io
       2022-12-29T00:06:30Z
       
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       @harrisj Yeah, and maybe to clarify I really mean "stripping out sensitive information" which in a COBOL context could well also include code. Still feels like a useful and fun thing!
       
 (DIR) Post #AR5GkGsHmJiPA7DaQS by clive@saturation.social
       2022-12-29T01:49:54Z
       
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       @harrisj @allafarce Agreed! The syntax of COBOL is simple and can be absorbed pretty quickly — the hard part is practicing on actual sets of live dataDoes IBM offer anything like that in its online COBOL course?
       
 (DIR) Post #AR5HTabnFqAxOh75qS by allafarce@hachyderm.io
       2022-12-29T01:58:03Z
       
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       @clive @harrisj That’s a great lead to follow, I’m not sure.