[Info-vax] COBOL Is Obsolete (was Re: Any stronger versions of the LMF planned ?)

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 9/22/2021 8:01 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> =?UTF-8?Q?Lawrence_D=E2=80=99Oliveiro?=  <lawrencedo99 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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 thetotal
>>> length.
>>
>> The specific question being considered here is interfacing from COBOL to SQL.
>> COBOL was born back in the era of ISAM files, and never really adapted to the
>> widespread adoption of SQL and relational databases. This in spite of the
>> fact that COBOL was supposed to be a =E2=80=9Cbusiness-oriented=E2=80=
>> =9D language, and SQL has become rather essential to just about every kind
>> of =E2=80=9Cbusiness=E2=80=9D need since the 1980s.
> 
> In the IBM/360 world, SQL code can be embedded within COBOL programs using
> EXEC-SQL.  There's no "interface" per se, they are all mixed up together.
> 
> If VMS does not allow this, it's a thing that should probably be added
> because IBM has had it for many decades and it's very convenient.

It is worth noting that embedded SQL is database specific.

IBM supports embedded SQL for DB2.

Oracle supports embedded SQL for Oracle DB.

On VMS there is support for embedded SQL by at least:
- Rdb
- Oracle DB (Oracle Classic) [pending Oracle drop of any support]
- Mimer

And it is also language specific. Rdb has support for all the
traditional VMS languages, but many embedded SQL only supports
Cobol and C.

Arne