Re: What's really wrong with COBOL?

[billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu (William Thomas Wolfe, 2847 )]

From madd@world.std.com (jim frost):
> What is this, a review of a freshman course in CS?  Have you resorted
> to believing that all people who use cobol are "common folk, people of
> the land (you know, morons)"?

   At my undergraduate institution, those who opted for the CIS program
   (Computer Information Systems) rather than the CS program (Computer
   Science) did not receive instruction regarding topics such as ADTs,
   recursion, and so on, receiving instead extensive COBOL and database
   knowledge without benefit of a solid computer science foundation.

   This was at Purdue University, the first institution in the world
   to institute a computer science program... the pattern seems to have 
   been characteristic of CIS programs at that point in time.

> Assume, for a change, that we're all professionals here and don't need
> trivial concepts described, especially inaccurately.

   Please explicitly point out what specific statements you considered
   inaccurate, if any.  The fact that many CIS degrees do not provide
   their holders with adequate preparation for the task of keeping up
   with technical advances in computer science does NOT imply any 
   lack of professionalism on the part of the degree-holder, at least
   from my point of view.  Your view, of course, may be different.


   Bill Wolfe, wtwolfe@hubcap.clemson.edu