[Info-vax] Writer advice requested

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 15-11-2010 18:37, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
> 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)
>
> 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 ? :-)

I see it more as the benefits of a stable environment.

You could have changed OS 3 times and programming language
3 times since then.

Arne