Missing COBOL
-
Actually I switched to the imaginatively named "PL/1" ("Programming Language One" - gosh, what an amazing name; when are we going to see "PL/2"?) which is like going from Heroine to Methadone! PL/1 was weird. It was like doing COBOL in FORTRAN. Thank god I was doing C on my own time to keep me sane!.
- Life in the fast lane is only fun if you live in a country with no speed limits. - Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind that I miss the most. - I vaguely remember having a good memory...
Me done PL/1. Me done all the functionals. #sniff#
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol
-
Actually I switched to the imaginatively named "PL/1" ("Programming Language One" - gosh, what an amazing name; when are we going to see "PL/2"?) which is like going from Heroine to Methadone! PL/1 was weird. It was like doing COBOL in FORTRAN. Thank god I was doing C on my own time to keep me sane!.
- Life in the fast lane is only fun if you live in a country with no speed limits. - Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind that I miss the most. - I vaguely remember having a good memory...
I used to use a PL/1 subset on Prime computers called SPL - it was pretty good
-
ISAM for sure, but I can't fully agree with COBOL.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol
I can't fully agree with COBOL either - but at the moment anything seems better than what I am currently fighting against
-
That only means they moved her and the cobol box to a new state of the art compute center
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-
I used to use a PL/1 subset on Prime computers called SPL - it was pretty good
Quote:
Prime computers
Good ol' Pr1me. I used to do FORTRAN on those.
- Life in the fast lane is only fun if you live in a country with no speed limits. - Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind that I miss the most. - I vaguely remember having a good memory...
-
Quote:
Prime computers
Good ol' Pr1me. I used to do FORTRAN on those.
- Life in the fast lane is only fun if you live in a country with no speed limits. - Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind that I miss the most. - I vaguely remember having a good memory...
I started on FORTRAN IV on them - then I discovered the SPL compiler and switched - weirdly the local library had a book devoted to translating FORTRAN IV to PL/1 - which was nice
-
For the first time in 20 years I have been tasked with writing a line of business application - it uses C#, WPF, SQL Server and Entity Framework I really miss COBOL and ISAM files.
RugbyLeague wrote:
I really miss COBOL and ISAM files.
What the hell for???? I took 3 semesters of COBOL in college, and if I never did it again I would be quite happy.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
-
So the £30 million they spent on the new glass and brushed metal looking place has got a cupboard for an old 386? how thoughtful in this day and age..
no its a multi million pound super computer (it just emulates a 386)
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-
You missed out on a shed load of fun if you've never done COBOL. Imagine drunk s_x without the guilty feeling; or the s_x or getting drunk to start with.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol
-
RugbyLeague wrote:
I really miss COBOL and ISAM files.
What the hell for???? I took 3 semesters of COBOL in college, and if I never did it again I would be quite happy.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is
I have no intention of using it again - just sometimes I hark back to a simpler age
-
Simplier? have you never dropped a box of punch cards?
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
TThat was before my time :-D
-
I have no intention of using it again - just sometimes I hark back to a simpler age
Simplier? have you never dropped a box of punch cards?
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-
For the first time in 20 years I have been tasked with writing a line of business application - it uses C#, WPF, SQL Server and Entity Framework I really miss COBOL and ISAM files.
-
For the first time in 20 years I have been tasked with writing a line of business application - it uses C#, WPF, SQL Server and Entity Framework I really miss COBOL and ISAM files.
-
For the first time in 20 years I have been tasked with writing a line of business application - it uses C#, WPF, SQL Server and Entity Framework I really miss COBOL and ISAM files.
In my opinion, the main trouble with modern languages/frameworks/IDEs is the lack of good documentation, combined to their excessive size and complexity. You can't find primers that give you the basic recipes to get started. Instead you face unmanageable piles of uninformative, unstructured reference manuals. It was possible to learn Cobol. You will never really know C# nor WPF nor SQL Server nor Entity Framework. Programming has moved from a scientific discipline to a pathetic maze crossing. Sorry for the bad news ;-).
-
In my opinion, the main trouble with modern languages/frameworks/IDEs is the lack of good documentation, combined to their excessive size and complexity. You can't find primers that give you the basic recipes to get started. Instead you face unmanageable piles of uninformative, unstructured reference manuals. It was possible to learn Cobol. You will never really know C# nor WPF nor SQL Server nor Entity Framework. Programming has moved from a scientific discipline to a pathetic maze crossing. Sorry for the bad news ;-).
I like to think I am pretty good at C# and WPF - I have written compilers in C# and award winning inverted index database software in C# with a WPF GUI - but I know what you mean. There's a lot of programming by Google done these days - and if you find 100 articles answering your question you'll generally find 100 conflicting answers.
-
Actually I switched to the imaginatively named "PL/1" ("Programming Language One" - gosh, what an amazing name; when are we going to see "PL/2"?) which is like going from Heroine to Methadone! PL/1 was weird. It was like doing COBOL in FORTRAN. Thank god I was doing C on my own time to keep me sane!.
- Life in the fast lane is only fun if you live in a country with no speed limits. - Of all the things I have lost, it is my mind that I miss the most. - I vaguely remember having a good memory...
There was a cartoon at the time showing a COBOL Mum and a FORTRAN Dad cooing over their baby PL/1 offspring, while through the window, a whistling ALGOL Milkman was placing bottles on their doorstep.
All that is necessary for Evil to succeed is for Good Folks to keep voting for their Party. - Cornelius Thirp
-
I thought that was LINC (Lucky its not cobol or Laugh I nearly Cried, as it was nicknamed )
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
When I was using it (LINC 4?), it generated 1000s of lines of COBOL which often compiled with errors. Corrections had to be made to the generated COBOL source, when you could work out what LINC was attempting.
Bergholt Stuttley Johnson wrote:
Laugh I nearly Cried
Too bloody right. :laugh:
All that is necessary for Evil to succeed is for Good Folks to keep voting for their Party. - Cornelius Thirp
-
-
Simplier? have you never dropped a box of punch cards?
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
When I started college, the year ahead of me was still on punch cards for COBOL and FORTran. Fortunately for me, over Christmas break, a new VAX/VMS system was installed and I never had to use punch cards. Still had 3 semesters of COBOL though. When I started working, ironically, it was in FORTRan. The college no longer offered a course in FORTRan...