COBOL "non-myth" confirmed - Index and subscripts (MF on Windows)
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From: Howard Brazee on 21 Sep 2007 14:45 On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:16:43 -0500, Robert <no(a)e.mail> wrote: >This could have been prevented by allowing Cobol to change at a normal rate. True >conservatives would have seen that, and thereby conserved Cobol. What is "a normal rate"? >What about the ones who destroyed Cobol with excessive resistance to change? They are >demonstrably not conservatives because they didn't conserve it. Give me an example of conservatives changing fast enough to save something? >The most common >perjorative, dinosaur, might be appropriate. Dinosaurs became extinct because they were >incapable or unwilling to change .. except for a 'radical faction' that morphed into birds >and an old school we now call crocodilians. Both are minor players in the biological >world. Dinosaurs changed to survive, and now they are gone. I suppose we could have morphed CoBOL into Java, but then it wouldn't be CoBOL. Dinosaurs were extremely successful. I don't think apes like us will last nearly as long. I also don't expect Java to last as long as CoBOL did - things are changing too fast.
From: Judson McClendon on 21 Sep 2007 14:46 "Charles Hottel" <chottel(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > ... > It is not always possible to tell the future and code for the most general case. ... You're right, but I try very hard to do it. I've been saved many times, and come out smelling like a rose, because of careful forethought. In the 70's I designed a Criminal Justice system for the local county. In one area there was a case number that was 8 numeric digits. I thought "Oh, yeah, they're definitely going to make that sucker bigger at some point, so I'll head 'em off at the pass" and built a 12 character alphanumeric case number into the new system. About five years later, the courts decided they wanted a 15 character case number. Sigh. Last I heard, the system is still running, though probably modified beyond recognition by now. Don't you love it when some incompetent dolt does a complete rewrite on one of your programs, leaving only your name as the author? :-) No kidding, I once had someone do a whole system of mine like that. I didn't know it until about three years later when a programmer working on it asked me why a certain program did such-and-such. I told him it didn't, and when he showed me the listing, it was not remotely like what I had designed or written. He said he had been wondering why I had written such crummy code. I learned that the user department had been mumbling behind my back about what a crummy system I had written for them. I didn't blame them, but did set them straight about who did what, and fortunately had my original design and listings as proof. I had been pulled off the system for another project just before completion. The culprit said she didn't understand how my design worked, so she threw mine away and redid it without telling anyone. I'm still proud of myself for avoiding homicide at that point. :-) I don't remember if she used indexes or subscripts. ;-) -- Judson McClendon judmc(a)sunvaley0.com (remove zero) Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
From: Howard Brazee on 21 Sep 2007 14:48 On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:46:02 -0500, Robert <no(a)e.mail> wrote: >Unexpectedly, the demand and pay for PL/SQL is sky high. It's number two after Java, ahead >of C++ and dot-net. Evidently there are shops that write everything in PL/SQL and SQR. How >desperate and sad. Why desperate? Sure, I would have more power if there was greater demand for my skills, but I'm not selfish enough to wish the world would be designed around me. (Unlike certain politicians)
From: Judson McClendon on 21 Sep 2007 14:48 "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood(a)removethis.enternet.co.nz> wrote: > > ... > I can assure you I am a very multi-faceted person and no particular generalization is going to be totally accurate. ... Even "a very multi-faceted person?" ;-) Sorry, Pete, I just couldn't resist. :-) -- Judson McClendon judmc(a)sunvaley0.com (remove zero) Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
From: Howard Brazee on 21 Sep 2007 16:20
On Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:55:53 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf(a)panix.com () wrote: >It is also said that one must first walk before one can run... I did not >know this was News. I have a backwards granddaughter - I never saw her walking until after she had been running for months. |