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=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC,XPRIO autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,41820f61dfdca7ab,start X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-02-03 18:37:22 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!nntp-relay.ihug.net!ihug.co.nz!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!news-sjo.usenetserver.com!news-out.usenetserver.com!e3500-chi1.usenetserver.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Reply-To: "Peter Richtmyer" From: "Peter Richtmyer" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: COBOL Interesting ? (and off-topic?) (Was Latin, etc.) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Message-ID: X-Complaints-To: abuse@usenetserver.com X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly. NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2001 21:36:04 EST Organization: WebUseNet Corp http://www.usenetserver.com - Home of the fastest NNTP servers on the Net. Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 21:33:08 -0500 Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4918 Date: 2001-02-03T21:33:08-05:00 List-Id: "Robert Dewar" wrote in message news:955m5h$brm$1@nnrp1.deja.com... > In article <954e7d$8q61@news.cis.okstate.edu>, > dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org wrote: > So for example, lots of people will dismiss COBOL as too > verbose, which overall is plain technical nonsense (when I > gave a talk at Berkeley on COBOL, I spent time addressing > this silly issue just because so many people are under > this illusion -- we took several standard algorithms, and > programmed them in several languages, and COBOL came out > as short or shorter than the competition, both in characters > and token count :-) Of course this is a totally uninteresting > issue anyway, and has nothing to do with the things that make > COBOL an interesting language :-) I find it "totally interesting" that you would bother writing about something that you say is "...a totally uninteresting issue...". :-) That wasn't a hint of humility was it? :-) Seriosuly, I find what you said very interesting. I would like to know what the other "several languages" were in your study. And more about "...the things that make COBOL an interesting language" to you. Perhaps if your reply about COBOL also referred to Ada then we could keep "on-topic" and avoid what someone in the parent thread called the "Usenet-police-callers". :-) In a past life I was a COBOL programmer. I have more recently taught (in-house) and programmed Ada, C and C++, and I always defended COBOL (and RPG !) for their place in software development. Especially when COBOL is being maligned by some "wet-behind-the-ears" over-paid and under-trained so-called engineer that does not even know what "COBOL" stands for, no less how or when to use it. I also worked for while as a C++ programmer in a place where there was open "class warfare" between the COBOL programmers and the C++ programmers. On the whole, the COBOL programmers were the "better class of people" at that job. (He said "Object-ively" :-) Best regards, Peter