Cobol

cobol pic definition
all, I am new to cobol, and i have a question about a field definition i came across. I see a field in one of the copybook documents at my day job that has a definition as the following: 000900 05 CONTROL-CNT PIC -9(03). Can someone help me understand why there is a minus sign ('-') bef... 5 Jun 2010 14:41

I am back (I think)
After several months where it was NOT my highest priority, I think that I have (finally) figured out how to relatively easily get to a newsreader that I am "happy" with - from my Windows 7 system. I still have some problems that I may post in the future, but I hope to check in medium often. I do not think t... 1 Jun 2010 08:37

Art and Readymades.
Alistair Maclean wrote: Pete - you were not familiar with the Art term "Readymades". This is a term which was applied to Raoul Duffy's exhibit of a urinal as a work of art. He took a porcelain urinal and turned it around, signed his name and hung it on a wall as art. When criticised, he argued that art ... 6 Jun 2010 10:30

Outsourcing across national borders was Re: How to talk like a programmer
On Wed, 26 May 2010 12:44:05 -0600, Howard Brazee <howard(a)brazee.net> wrote: On Wed, 26 May 2010 17:44:02 +0000 (UTC), docdwarf(a)panix.com () wrote: It is easier to move a company's IT offshore than its lawn mowing. It is as easy to move a company's lawn mowing offshore as it is to move its headqu... 28 May 2010 21:26

Is it Art? WAS:Re: How to talk like a programmer
Bill Gunshannon wrote: <snip> I do not see the IT business in the USA as being in any sort of different condition than any other business in the USA... but perhaps my vision is limited, aye. Sadly. I agree. But that doesn't decrease the cesspool that the IT indistry is sinking into. And,... 2 Jun 2010 12:00

Ping Warren Simmons
Warren, if you are still following this group, could you contact me privately, please? Cheers, Pete. -- "I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything." ... 26 May 2010 12:26

Cobol today
I learned Cobol as one of several languages many years ago (about 1980) and although many people laughed at this crazy language, I was told that 80% of all programs in the world are in Cobol. What is the situation today? Has Cobol developed as Fortran did (another language some laugh at, not knowing that it has ind... 1 Jun 2010 16:23

How to talk like a programmer
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/How-to-Talk-Like-a-Programmer-773992/?kc=EWKNLITA05252010STR1 -- "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department." - James Mad... 30 May 2010 05:44

Suppressing Cobol print messages
I have a program that was written in a weird structure. I was wondering if anyone knew a way to call unix to suppress an error message if the cobol print file is empty. SEDC Main 9K:noitems $ run pub/ slaudit 05/25/10 BEGIN SECURITY LIGHT AUDIT 09:19 AM DO YOU WISH TO RUN THIS PROGRAM? Y/N/S/E Y NO QUALI... 28 May 2010 02:50

Acucobol Error 98.13
Hi there, is anyone facing the error 98.13 ? Any clue about it ? Thanks for your comments Giovanni ... 27 May 2010 09:14