[Info-vax] COBOL Is Obsolete (was Re: Any stronger versions of the LMF planned ?)

[Scott Dorsey]

=?UTF-8?Q?Lawrence_D=E2=80=99Oliveiro?=  <lawrencedo99 at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Friday, August 20, 2021 at 1:31:54 PM UTC+12, Arne Vajh=C3=B8j wrote:
>
>> Fixed length strings are not a problem.=20
>
>I laugh at your pathetic fixed-length buffers.
>
>> Strings with no concept of length are a problem.=20


COBOL isn't a programming language.  COBOL is a data description language that
has some programming features on the side.  If you look at a well-written
typical COBOL program, the procedure division is a very small part of the total
length.

Silly arguments like this occur when people think of COBOL as a programming
language, and complain that it's not a good programming language.  That's
not what it is at all.  That's like complaining a tomato isn't good for ice
cream.  

And yes, null-terminated strings are a disaster, I think we can all agree on
that.  They are now available in many implementations of COBOL too, which I 
think is a mistake. 
--scott


-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."