[OT] On old languages (COBOL)

[OT] On old languages (COBOL)

[Preben Randhol]

I just noticed the following article on the net:

   KOBOL hopes to aid Linux migration worldwide

   In a recent interview, Miguel de Icaza of Ximian, Inc., spoke of an
   issue preventing Linux adoption in many countries.

   "Even today we're still using COBOL applications and we're still
   running System/36 machines," de Icaza said, speaking of his native
   Mexico and many other nations.

   KOBOL, from theKompany.com, may make it easier for users of legacy
   COBOL applications to move to Linux, and even to develop new COBOL
   apps for use there.

   Full story here:
      http://linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=90

It seems that old languages keep around for a long time.

And now with Ada in gcc, GVD, GPS and Gtkada the future seems brighter
for Ada95 IMHO.

Preben

Re: [OT] On old languages (COBOL)

[Adrian Hoe]

Preben Randhol wrote:

> I just noticed the following article on the net:
> 
>    KOBOL hopes to aid Linux migration worldwide
> 
>    In a recent interview, Miguel de Icaza of Ximian, Inc., spoke of an
>    issue preventing Linux adoption in many countries.
> 
>    "Even today we're still using COBOL applications and we're still
>    running System/36 machines," de Icaza said, speaking of his native
>    Mexico and many other nations.
> 
>    KOBOL, from theKompany.com, may make it easier for users of legacy
>    COBOL applications to move to Linux, and even to develop new COBOL
>    apps for use there.
> 
>    Full story here:
>       http://linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=90
> 
> It seems that old languages keep around for a long time.
> 
> And now with Ada in gcc, GVD, GPS and Gtkada the future seems brighter
> for Ada95 IMHO.
> 
> Preben
> 

One of the reason COBOL still around is that its syntax is easily 
understood by managers. Not C/C++.

How about Ada? A whole bunch of managers don't even know what's Ada 
and certainly its existence. Not to mention its technical merits. 
These managers I refered to are business managers.

Perhaps, if Ada were to have the COBOL-like syntax, it had already 
became a legacy! ;-)
-- 
Remove *nospam* to email.              -- Adrian Hoe
                                        -- http://adrianhoe.com

Re: [OT] On old languages (COBOL)

[Marin David Condic]

Interesting, but not really compelling. Cobol got its start at a time when
there just plain wasn't anything else to address the needs of business
programming. It was selling umbrellas in the middle of a rainstorm. Once it
got its huge base of usage, it wasn't about to be unseated easily simply
because of the huge investment in assets. Managers didn't need to understand
the code - they understood the balance sheet. Any attempt to switch from
what they had to something new was going to be horrendously costly, so
technical advantages aside, they were going to stick with Cobol.

Its important to understand that when thinking of advancing the usage of
Ada. Its very hard - mostly impossible - to get existing projects unseated.
If it was programmed in X - its going to stay in X until some time when it
is declared outmoded and is supplanted by a whole new system. The secret to
success is to have the guys building the whole new system convinced that Ada
is a better choice. If we are the guys dreaming up and building the new
systems, that is more likely to happen.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com


"Adrian Hoe" <mailbox@*nospam*adrianhoe.com> wrote in message
news:3d05aa8e_1@news.tm.net.my...
>
> One of the reason COBOL still around is that its syntax is easily
> understood by managers. Not C/C++.
>
> How about Ada? A whole bunch of managers don't even know what's Ada
> and certainly its existence. Not to mention its technical merits.
> These managers I refered to are business managers.
>
> Perhaps, if Ada were to have the COBOL-like syntax, it had already
> became a legacy! ;-)

Re: [OT] On old languages (COBOL)

[Wes Groleau]

Adrian Hoe wrote:
> One of the reason COBOL still around is that its syntax is easily
> understood by managers. Not C/C++.

One wag wrote:

  COBOL was conceived to allow managers to read programs.
  COBOL was implemented to prove that managers won't read programs.

-- 
Wes Groleau
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~wgroleau

Re: [OT] On old languages (COBOL)

[Caffeine Junky]

On Thu, 06 Jun 2002 11:41:53 -0400, Preben Randhol wrote:

> I just noticed the following article on the net:
> 
>    KOBOL hopes to aid Linux migration worldwide
> 
>    In a recent interview, Miguel de Icaza of Ximian, Inc., spoke of an
>    issue preventing Linux adoption in many countries.
> 
>    "Even today we're still using COBOL applications and we're still
>    running System/36 machines," de Icaza said, speaking of his native
>    Mexico and many other nations.
> 
>    KOBOL, from theKompany.com, may make it easier for users of legacy
>    COBOL applications to move to Linux, and even to develop new COBOL
>    apps for use there.
> 
>    Full story here:
>       http://linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=90
> 
> It seems that old languages keep around for a long time.
> 
> And now with Ada in gcc, GVD, GPS and Gtkada the future seems brighter
> for Ada95 IMHO.
> 
> Preben
 
Depends on what the language is being used for I guess. Some of the old
stalwarts like C, Lisp, Fortran, and even Cobol can actually be pretty
useful when used in the right context.

Heck I'm working on an Ada stacks package which re-implements many of the
ideas I picked up on from using Forth. i.e. Swap, Rot, Bump, etc...

Even Ada has been around long enough to be considered an old timer.

My Ada StakPak might even be useful once it's finished. Heh.