Re: Answering an Ada/COBOL Question

[Marin Condic <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com>]

Robert Dewar wrote:

> Typically this kind of comment comes from people who don't
> have experience writing fiscal programs in COBOL or any other
> language :-)

Not entirely fair. In another life, I developed lots of financial
applications in COBOL for the City of Chicago. I'll grant that COBOL has

facilities that make this sort of thing easier - especially with file
handling, decimal numbers, output formatting, etc. My only point was
that otherwise intelligent people conclude that because COBOL has some
superior features for a specific application domain that means the
application domain can't be addressed by other languages which may not
have all those spiffy domain specific features. I've also done financial

applications in C. It's more work in some areas, but it is not at all
impossible - or even necessarily difficult. I think that with Ada's data

processing annex, it provides most of the tools needed to do the job -
if not exactly as easily, at least well enough that it would be a viable

choice for financial software alongside COBOL. (And let's be fair about
COBOL: What it may make easier in some areas it often makes more
difficult in others, so it may just be a wash.)

Now how I went from business data processing to embedded realtime engine

controls is a long story, but I've never been tempted to try writing a
realtime executive in COBOL! ;-)

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
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