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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 107f24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid107f24,public X-Google-Thread: 10259a,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid10259a,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,ea8ea502d35ca2ce X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: f4fd2,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gidf4fd2,public X-Google-Thread: 10d15b,8c898456133be452 X-Google-Attributes: gid10d15b,public X-Google-Thread: 103d24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid103d24,public X-Google-Thread: 1164ba,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid1164ba,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-21 14:30:55 PST Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.basic,comp.lang.functional,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.perl,comp.lang.cobol Subject: Re: Beginner's Language? From: ebfg01@bluewin.ch (Marie-No�lle Baechler) References: <9cukad$nn68@news-dxb> <9d6b6e$1bt$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <87snihxiwc.fsf@frown.here> <9dbi83$sji$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <87heyu7cqd.fsf@frown.here> <9dc20p$hh15e$1@ID-37382.news.dfncis.de> <9dclnt$9ic1@news.cis.okstate.edu> <3B02C05B.BA4B63C6@raytheon.com> <3B08965C.6F34D5C9@ix.netcom.com> Organization: Your Company Message-ID: User-Agent: Xnews/03.12.21 Followup-To: comp.lang.ada NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.3.35.252 Date: 21 May 2001 23:30:51 +0200 X-Trace: 21 May 2001 23:30:51 +0200, 213.3.35.252 X-Complaints-To: abuse@bluewin.ch Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!chcgil2-snh1.gtei.net!nycmny1-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.bluewin.ch Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7690 comp.lang.lisp:10499 comp.lang.smalltalk:10011 comp.lang.functional:5761 comp.lang.scheme:3953 comp.lang.perl:2865 comp.lang.cobol:9232 Date: 2001-05-21T23:30:51+02:00 List-Id: >I assume this was a joke. In reality, there are still a lot of people >successfully developing software with COBOL. Moreover, the current >COBOL standard, and its planned successor, are both quite easy for >applications developers to learn and use. One of COBOL's virtues has >been that, in large corporations, people who understand the problem >domain have been able to transition to the role of programmer and create >solutions. Typically, these people have little training in computer >science. They are able to learn on the job. In my employer, a teaching hospital, COBOL was still very important a few years ago, but it will have disappeared by January 1, 2002. The only system still using it, our patient management system will be replaced at that time. Here, COBOL is disappearing because informations systems based on relational databases are used for all the major tasks. We also tend to rely on packages, we try to minimize local adaptations and they are developped as specific extensions by our suppliers. Local extensions of our major information systems are mostly very specific queries and they are developped in ORACLE SQL. We have a few programs developped in PL/SQL. Some of our large packages are not yet client/server. When they are, the client is developped in C++ (with one major exception using UNIFACE). A few less important applications have been developped as Intranet applications in ORACLE PL/SQL. Small specific client/server applications have been developped with a VB client. So, for us, COBOL is finally disappearing. But it took 10 more years than what I expected. Marie-Noelle Baechler