[Info-vax] Writer advice requested

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

On 2010-11-16 00:02, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 15-11-2010 16:07, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>> On 11/15/2010 3:49 PM, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>>> On 2010-11-15 20:28, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>>>> On 11/15/2010 1:06 PM, Rob Brown wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, 12 Nov 2010 at 18:52 -0000, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> What's wrong with COBOL?
>>>>>
>>>>> A cross between Assembler and English, with all the disadvantages of
>>>>> both.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> COBOL is okay in its place! Its place, however, is not where I want to
>>>> work. It was my first high level language (Computer Programming 101 &
>>>> 102
>>>> from the University of Virginia).
>>>>
>>>> FORTRAN IV was my second language, self taught, from D.D. McCracken's
>>>> "Introduction to FORTRAN IV Programming. FORTRAN was what paid the bills
>>>> for many years.
>>>
>>> So COBOL would not be OK even if it "paid the bills" ?
>>> It does for me so I guess I like COBOL... :-)
>>
>> Hey! Pay me and I'll write COBOL. Though I expect I'll have to re-learn
>> it. I'm sure that the language has changed a great deal since 1968!
>> There have been how many revisions to the standard in the last 42 years?
>
> The standards are 68, 74, 85 and 2002.
>
> So the standard has definitely evolved.
>
> But the 74 and 85 revisions was minor.
>
> I am not familiar with COBOL, but my guess would be that very
> few COBOL programs actually use the new 2002 features.
>
> (and if we talk VMS then I don't even think HP COBOL supports 2002)
>
> Arne
>

And the applications I support where written in the 80's... :-)
Here is one of the apps with the longest time between the oldest
and the newest version still on-disk :

 > dir DKA200:[xx.yy]zzzz.COB

Directory DKA200:[xx.yy]

zzzz.COB;9    27/35       22-JUL-2003 12:51:52.04
zzzz.COB;8    26/35        5-SEP-1997 15:25:53.74
zzzz.COB;7    26/35       19-MAR-1985 16:55:21.00

And the header says :

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
SOURCE-COMPUTER.        VAX-11.
OBJECT-COMPUTER.        VAX-11.
DATA    DIVISION.

Today it runs on a Alpha DS20e and a DIFF on the files
shows that there where no platform related changes
to the source from the 1985 version to today.

That is what forward/backward compatibility means, right ? :-)

Jan-Erik.