Re: I wonder how many codgers are still mentis enough to work on the 4GL it was written in?
You talking about Quick Build (QB)? Yep, it was a bit crap but good old COBOL worked bloody well with IDMSX under ICL's VME op sys. Still my preferred network-database.
QB was crap at multiphase transactions due to page and table locks being released at the end of each phase. Had to code your own lock system and needed the low level calls available with the VME/B option.
To quote my team manager on an ICL to IBM conversion (last century) "A small step forward for IBM but a giant leap backwards for ...."
It was hard work converting a nicely integrated polished suite of systems to a less flexible architecture. That's just the hardware and op sys aspect. The fact that IBM only did IDMS as a database meant everything had to be recoded as the were no eXtended indexes.