[Info-vax] Long uptime cut short by Hurricane Sandy

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <00ACE3D9.F7BAA3E3 at sendspamhere.org>,
	VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG writes:
> In article <kegcsp$nke$3 at dont-email.me>, Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
>>On 2013-02-01, VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG <VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG> wrote:
>>> In article <an0jjrFduj7U1 at mid.individual.net>, billg999 at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes:
>>>
>>>>I've seen more comments in COBOL than in Ada.  Does that make COBOL a
>>>>better language for writing an F16 Flight Control System?
>>>
>>> Does that make Ada a better language for writing a financial application?
>>>  
>>
>>Actually, Ada probably _is_ a better language than COBOL for writing
>>financial applications. :-)
> 
> But find an accountant that knows Ada. :)

Believe it or not the University I used to work at once used Ada as
the basic language used for CS I and CS II programming classes.  It
took over whne Pascal fell out of vogue.  :-)

> 
> Last time I used Ada was when working for GE AstroSpace/NASA on the Mars
> Observer.  I didn't mind it.  

Funny as it may sound, given the origins of Ada, it seems to have the
majority of its supporters in Europe now and has all bu faded away in
the US.

>                              What was frightening were the many people 
> employed for this project that did NOT know Ada and, equally frightening,
> they couldn't even program their way to the loo!  Nothing new, I suppose.
> I saw the same when working a Navy contract.

A common problem.  My last real programming job (beginning of last year)
was maintaining some COBOL for the Navy.  It had been written by Navy
employees (actually, enployee) and modified by numerous contractors.
It was some of the worst COBOL I ever saw in my life.  Totally un-structured.
At least one GOTO in every 10 lines.  Jumped in and out of paragraphs and
sections.  ( I re-wrote 14 of them completely removing all the GOTOs before
leaving after only 4 months.)  And then there was the conversion from
VSAM files to SYBASE done by a contractor who shall remain nameless.
They opened the dadabase, fetched all the appropriate records, wrote
them into sequential files and then processed the files.

bill
 

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>