Re: Learn COBOL?

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      Paige Vinall (vinall -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com) attempted to defend COBOL as a
      worthwhile endeavor.

It's a lost cause, Paige. Give it up. No less than the father of the structured
programming paradigm, Edgar Dykstra, once said, "The teaching of COBOL should be
made a criminal offense."

Yes, COBOL will continue to be used on into the 21st Century. But those who use
it will be condemned to never creating anything, only maintaining what was
written decades into the past.

Knowing COBOL data syntax is useful, as most large databases use COBOL syntax in
their dictionaries. But the language itself is a dead end. The fact that it is
even useful today, forty years after its birth, stands as a monument to the
brilliance of Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, and for that reason alone we shall lose
something special when it passes. But it's already being replaced as shops find
it's cheaper and simpler to buy applications and extend them than it is to write
them completely in-house. The 65 billion lines are not being converted, they're
being abandoned, millions at a time.


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 124

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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