[Info-vax] COBOL Is Obsolete (was Re: Any stronger versions of the LMF planned ?)

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2021-09-22 kl. 10:15, skrev Lawrence D’Oliveiro:
> On Saturday, September 18, 2021 at 12:14:00 AM UTC+12, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> 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.
> 

I think that Scott tried to make a joke there. It very much depends
on the actual application, of course, what the ratio between data
definition and procedure code is.

> The specific question being considered here is interfacing from COBOL to SQL.

VMS Cobol has the same "embedded SQL" support just as any other compiled
VMS language such C, Fortran, Basic. No difference at all.

And VMS Cobol can of course call SQLMOD routines and functions just as
any other VMS compiled language that follows the VMS Calling Standard.

So there is nothing special about "interfacing from COBOL to SQL"
that makes it stand out compared to other (compiled) languages.

If you compare with scripting languages (Python and such) there is an
differnce in that the SQL has to be compiled at runtime. A bit less
efficient then having the SQL compilation done at compile time.

> COBOL was born back in the era of ISAM files, and never really adapted to
> the widespread adoption of SQL and relational databases.

That is a complete BS, of course. As anyone really understanding
these matters understand.


> This in spite of the fact that COBOL was supposed to be a “business-oriented”
> language, and SQL has become rather essential to just about every kind of
> “business” need since the 1980s.

Yes. So? So IBM System/z Cobol code can't use DB2?

> 
> And yes, SQL is very much a “programming language”, whether or not you
> think COBOL is one.
> 

True. An in particular if you are into SQLMOD programming, where the
complete sorce code is just pure SQL.