The death of PL/I?: Ernst & Young survey reveals massive desire to move away from PL/I within one year; Majority of 1700 worldwide companies surveyed planning to convert to COBOL; U.S. leading the pack

Business Wire, Dec 4, 1995

UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 1995 -- According to a recent survey of over 1700 North American and European companies, most corporate Information Technology (IT) organizations intend to phase out their PL/I applications through replacement or migration to COBOL or other computer languages, with many organizations intending to start this effort within the next year.

The August 1995 survey was sponsored by Ernst & Young RE Products bv and performed by Neaman Bond Associates, the marketing services partner of Butler Bloor Ltd., a leading European research firm. Results of the interviews reflect the attitudes and purchasing trends of IT directors within some of the world's largest corporations including: AT&T, Eastman Kodak, Raytheon, South Western Bell, State Farm Insurance, and the Department of Energy. Approximately 53% of the responses came from IT organizations within the U.S.

The survey covered four areas including: PL/I usage, commitment to PL/I , PL/I migration intentions and language replacement options.

Key findings included:

o A majority of respondents said PL/I is outdated and inappropriate for today's computing environment. o Some 59% of respondents are looking to move away from PL/I. o COBOL is the language of choice for organizations planning any move away from PL/I, with C and C coming in as second and third choices respectively. o The primary reason for abandoning PL/I is a change in architecture, mostly due to a move to client/server. o Of the companies wishing to convert or rewrite applications to COBOL, most plan to start within one year.

PL/I is outdated and inappropriate for today's computing environment.

An overwhelming majority of respondents perceive PL/I to be outdated and no longer suitable for today's commercial environments. Since colleges are no longer teaching PL/I, many mentioned that finding suitable staff is difficult and a real inhibitor to the continued use of the language. Additionally, PL/I lacks the multi-platform support of more widely accepted languages such as COBOL and C .

59% of respondents are looking to move away from PL/I.

Whether they were looking to convert their PL/I code to another language or were considering a re-write or adoption of a packaged solution, 59% of all respondents stated that they would move away from PL/I. Of those looking to move away, 27% would move but believe the task is too difficult. Another 27% would convert their applications to other languages such as COBOL, while the remaining 46% said they would rewrite or replace applications. Only 23% of those surveyed were satisfied with PL/I, these respondents believe that PL/I is the only language suitable for their requirements.

COBOL is the language of choice for organizations planning to migrate away from PL/I.

COBOL is the language of choice for conversion, as well as rewriting of applications. Of those respondents planning to convert or rewrite PL/I, 31% intend to use COBOL as the target language. The next most popular choices are C and C which are the target languages of choice for, respectively, 10% and 7% of the respondents.

A change in architecture, mostly due to a move to client/server, is the primary reason for abandoning PL/I.

As client/server becomes the de facto standard for an enterprise wide systems architecture, the number of those who believe PL/I is outdated is expected to increase according to survey respondents. Some 44% of those who are planning migrations from PL/I are changing platforms due to a move to client/server and downsizing efforts. An additional 28% would like to move from PL/I to standardize their environments.

Of the companies wishing to convert or rewrite applications to COBOL, most plan to start within one year.

Of those organizations surveyed that are looking to convert PL/I applications, 50% wish to start the conversion in one year. While there is little variation between countries as to when they would start converting, there is a marked difference between industries. The automotive, publishing, travel, petroleum and service industries are in the forefront of this trend.

"This survey confirms the massive flight from PL/I and strong interest in COBOL, as well as a critical need for an easy and painless solution for PL/I migration, since many companies think the task is too difficult," said Hans-Peter Evers, managing director of Ernst & Young RE Products. "We were somewhat surprised that there wasn't stronger demand for newer languages such as C among those companies inclined to move to client/server," he said, "but major corporations obviously find COBOL attractive because of its high portability, maintainability and wide pool of available tools, talent and knowledge."

"The year 2000 date change is also a compelling reason for companies to migrate from PL/I to COBOL," said Bill Ulrich, president, Tactical Strategy Group, Inc. "While excellent tool support exists for languages, such as COBOL, the tool support for PL/I tends to be inadequate. As companies do their inventory analysis to scope year 2000 efforts, they will uncover orphan PL/I systems that they no longer have the necessary in-house support to modify. Converting these systems to COBOL add values by: eliminating the need for PL/I programmers, facilitating future maintenance through increased tool availability and doing away with the overhead costs to support the PL/I language environment."