[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 01/31/2018 03:54 PM, seasoned_geek wrote:
> On Wednesday, January 24, 2018 at 9:51:46 AM UTC-6, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>> Den 2018-01-24 kl. 16:36, skrev DaveFroble:
> 
>>> Do the "new languages" actually present more and better capabilities?
>>>
>>
>> Is a screwdriver better then a hammer? I would guess that you
>> understand that the answer is that "it depends"...
>>
>> In our case, Cobol is "best" for our core applications since it
>> gives smooth and fast applications for our end-users. At the same
>> time, Python is "best" for reporting and web-facing tools since
>> it has the builtin tools to make *that* development easier.
>>
> 
> In Dave's defense he asked "more and better capabilities."
> 
> I took that to mean features which would make it worth jumping to one of them for his existing or future code base. The short answer would be, if your customers are using RMS Indexed files, there is no reason to learn anything knew, but a massive reason to start teaching the young.
> 
> I do find it weird that someone in College Academia, and the IT portion of it, entrusted with educating young minds with employable skills needed by the industry, knows nothing about COBOL and even less about FORTRAN, especially what industries they are used in.
> 

They do know.  But their desire isn't to keep the ship on a solid
course in the direction of success but to steer it in the direction
they think it should be going. Anyone (well, except those in academia
apparently) who reads todays newspapers will have seen that the IT
world is becoming more and more aware of this shortcoming every day.

bill