[Info-vax] VMS Cobol - GnuCOBOL

[Simon Clubley]

On 2023-02-17, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> On 2/17/2023 10:53 AM, bill wrote:
>> On 2/17/2023 10:33 AM, ultr... at gmail.com wrote:
>>> On Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 2:34:06 PM UTC-5, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> VMS Tech Demo 6 - converting files between VMS Cobol and GnuCOBOL:
>>>> https://www.vajhoej.dk/arne/articles/vmstd6.html
>>>
>>> Synergy DIBOL is the naswer
>> 
>> Why?
>> 
>> While I think DIBOL is a pretty cool language, too, it suffers from
>> the same stigma as BLISS.  Not generally available.  COBOL is.
>
> Bliss is let us call it an "ex-DEC whatever" language.
>
> But I believe Dibol is available on VMS, Windows, Linux, AIX,
> HP-UX and everything that supports .NET (Windows, Linux, macOS).
> That is not everything with Cobol but it is a bit more than Bliss.
>

The main problem is that it's a language that's controlled by one
company and which you can only buy from them.

> Arne
>
> PS: I don't see what Dibol does for converting files between
>      VMS Cobol and GNUCobol though.
>

Nothing as far as I am aware. Bob just likes to claim that DIBOL is
the answer to everything. It's not. In a previous life, I used to
write some applications in it, and while its well suited to certain
applications, it is not a general language in the same way as say
C++, Ada, Pascal, or Java.

It also suffers from not having a free version so you have to pay
for the compiler (and unless the payment model has changed over the
last decade or so), you also have to pay for runtime licences.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.