From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: fac41,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 1108a1,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gid1108a1,public X-Google-Thread: f43e6,9a0ff0bffdf63657 X-Google-Attributes: gidf43e6,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4b06f8f15f01a568 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: dewarr@my-dejanews.com Subject: Re: Software landmines (loops) Date: 1998/09/19 Message-ID: <6u0ck4$f08$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 392713941 References: <6rf59b$2ud$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <6rfra4$rul$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <35DBDD24.D003404D@calfp.co.uk> <6sbuod$fra$1@hirame.wwa.com> <904556531.666222@miso.it.uq.edu.au> <6sgror$je8$3@news.indigo.ie> <6sh3qn$9p2$1@hirame.wwa.com> <6simjo$jnh$1@hirame.wwa.com> <35eeea9b.2174586@news.erols.com> <6sjj7n$3rr$1@hirame.wwa.com> <35f055a5.1431187@news.erols.com> <6sjnlu$83l$1@hirame.wwa.com> <6skfs7$2s6$1@hirame.wwa.com> <35F252DD.5187538@earthlink.net> <6t4dge$t8u$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <6t5mtp$4ho$1@news.indigo.ie> <35FFE58C.5727@ibm.net> <6tqvji$f0k$2@news.indigo.ie> <6ts4d0$2gk$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <6ttg0o$9kb$2@news.indigo.ie> <3602983C.62B1@ibm.net> X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x4.dejanews.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion X-Article-Creation-Date: Sat Sep 19 13:46:44 1998 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel,comp.object,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.ada X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/2.02 (OS/2; I) Date: 1998-09-19T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <3602983C.62B1@ibm.net>, bijuthom@ibm.net wrote: > Gerry Quinn wrote: > > > > I don't quite understand how a non-mathematical person would > > understand trans-Cantorian infinities. It sounds like a > > non-programming person understanding Cobol. > > > > Wasn't COBOL designed to enable no-programmer's to write programs? > > Biju Thomas No. It wasn't, and this idea is obviously absurd on the face of it (just read what you read, at the very least you must have forgotten a smiley, no?) What it was designed for was to make it easier for a non-programmer to *read* a COBOL program, and a well written COBOL program can do a good job of that (remember that the competition at the time was Fortran with 6 character identifier length limit). A sequence like IF BALANCE IS NEGATIVE THEN PERFORM SEND-BILL ELSE PERFORM REGISTER-CREDIT END-IF. Does not require a computer expert to figure out! Note here incidentally (always happy to take the chance to teach the ignorant a little bit about COBOL :-) :-) that the very light local refinement syntax is very attractive. Let's look at the above example in more detail and let's use upper/lower case as now permitted since that's more familiar. Process_Balance if balance is negative then perform Send-Bill else peform Register-Credit end-if. Send-Bill. ... Register-Credit. ... The only syntax required for a little refinement like this is the name of the procedure and a period. Furthermore, as you prefer for this kind of refinement, the definition of the procedure is AFTER the use. Many modern procedural languages don't compete well with COBOL in this respect, and the style in languages like Ada or C is instead to nest conditionals and let the code wander off to the right side of the page. COBOL programmers tend to find nested conditionals confusing (not such a suprising attitude, how many complex nested conditionals do you use in everyday speach :-) Does COBOL achieve its aim of allowing complex programs to be understood by non-programmers? Only partially, but at the time, it was definitely nearer to this goal than the competition, and it still is one of the languages in which it is possible to create the most readable code if you know what you are doing. SEND -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==----- http://www.dejanews.com/rg_mkgrp.xp Create Your Own Free Member Forum