[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 01/24/2018 04:16 PM, DaveFroble wrote:
> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 01/24/2018 11:16 AM, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
> 
>>> Now, the context was *our* core applications. But yes, strictly
>>> technically, one could write the applications in a number of other
>>> (compiled) languages, but Cobol gives stable code with few options
>>> to "shoot yourself in the foot". We would not be able to rewrite
>>> all our Cobol code in Java (or Python), the performance would go down
>>> the drain. We need stable response times to the factory equipment
>>> including database updates.
>>>
>>> Now, just speculating, but I think that it is easier to read 20-30
>>> year old and badly commented/documented Cobol code than 20-30 year
>>> old and badly commented/documented C code. I might be wrong... :-)
>>>
>>
>> Well, that depends on the code.  Or more likely the programmer who
>> wrote it.
> 
> Yeah, if the programmer was say, Chinese, and used Chinese names in the 
> variables, real fun times ....
> 

That only confuses people at the spoken language level.  I am talking
about writing obfuscated COBOL.  It can be done.  :-)

On a side note, in 1980 I spent a short time as an Assistant Instructor
in a COBOL course for Army Officers.  The course had about a half dozen
Turkish Officers who did exactly that.  While it meant I could not tell
at a glance what a Working Storage item actually did, I was still able
to help them with their programs.

bill