Relax: I don't intend to learn COBOL. :) Lots of tech reporters are writing stories about why COBOL is dead/obsolete. They're wrong. I am writing a story about COBOL's merits, roadmap, etc. -- already working on setting up some interviews with people in the ISO standards community, IBM, and so on. Here's a specific question for you guys. The page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compilers#COBOL_compilers lists lists nine COBOL compilers. Other than IBM and Gnu, which are the most common ones used in industry? (banks, federal agencies, etc.) ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan@vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation
I couldn't be certain, but for a long time the MicroFocus products were the "goto" compilers for folks moving off IBM Mainframes. I am not sure what their current status, but they are certainly highly featured on their web sites. They have been around so long that perhaps they are no legacy... Dave P.S. now you can write decent BASIC Cobol should be a snip. Three or four days with the manual and you would be enough for you to start Stock Control packages, just what the museum needs.
-----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic [mailto:vcf-midatlantic- bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic Sent: 17 May 2017 22:57 To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Cc: Evan Koblentz <evan@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] COBOL
Relax: I don't intend to learn COBOL. :)
Lots of tech reporters are writing stories about why COBOL is dead/obsolete. They're wrong. I am writing a story about COBOL's merits, roadmap, etc. -- already working on setting up some interviews with people in the ISO standards community, IBM, and so on.
Here's a specific question for you guys. The page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compilers#COBOL_compilers lists lists nine COBOL compilers. Other than IBM and Gnu, which are the most common ones used in industry? (banks, federal agencies, etc.)
________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit
evan@vcfed.org (646) 546-9999
www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation
.NET/cobol But...Fortran was much more portable and flexible Cobol best with punch cards or flat file data, which became obsolete as relational databases became dominant. I still work with cobol-decedent financial data formats 132 column delimited data recorda, etc. I used cool when I worked at dupont tso/JCL jobs etc Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net On May 17, 2017 7:12 PM, "dave.g4ugm--- via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
I couldn't be certain, but for a long time the MicroFocus products were the "goto" compilers for folks moving off IBM Mainframes. I am not sure what their current status, but they are certainly highly featured on their web sites. They have been around so long that perhaps they are no legacy...
Dave
P.S. now you can write decent BASIC Cobol should be a snip. Three or four days with the manual and you would be enough for you to start Stock Control packages, just what the museum needs.
-----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic [mailto:vcf-midatlantic- bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic Sent: 17 May 2017 22:57 To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org
Cc: Evan Koblentz <evan@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] COBOL
Relax: I don't intend to learn COBOL. :)
Lots of tech reporters are writing stories about why COBOL is dead/obsolete. They're wrong. I am writing a story about COBOL's merits, roadmap, etc. -- already working on setting up some interviews with people in the ISO standards community, IBM, and so on.
Here's a specific question for you guys. The page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compilers#COBOL_compilers lists lists nine COBOL compilers. Other than IBM and Gnu, which are the most common ones used in industry? (banks, federal agencies, etc.)
________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit
evan@vcfed.org (646) 546-9999
www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation
..I used cobol when I worked at dupont tso/JCL (Damn autocorrect) Cobol is obsolete though. My professional opinion
On 05/17/2017 07:33 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
..I used cobol when I worked at dupont tso/JCL (Damn autocorrect)
Cobol is obsolete though. My professional opinion
Your bank statement would disagree with you. Cobol is *out of fashion*. Obsolete doesn't mean quite the same thing. -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
It's obsolete Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net On May 17, 2017 7:35 PM, "Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On 05/17/2017 07:33 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
..I used cobol when I worked at dupont tso/JCL (Damn autocorrect)
Cobol is obsolete though. My professional opinion
Your bank statement would disagree with you.
Cobol is *out of fashion*. Obsolete doesn't mean quite the same thing.
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
Sigh. Definitions for "Obsolete", according to dictionary.com, with my comments between the numbered items: 1. no longer in general use; fallen into disuse: an obsolete expression. Cobol is in general use, daily, all over the world. It has never fallen into disuse. 2. of a discarded or outmoded type; out of date: an obsolete battleship. Cobol has not been discarded. Outmoded may be as close as it gets, meaning that there are languages that are more "in fashion", as I said earlier. But does fashion have anything to do with whether or not it gets the job done? For professionals, no. 3. (of a linguistic form) no longer in use, especially, out of use for at least the past century. Compare archaic. Not applicable. 4. effaced by wearing down or away. Not applicable. 5. Biology. imperfectly developed or rudimentary in comparison with the corresponding character in other individuals, as of the opposite sex or of a related species. Not applicable. Therefore, no. Cobol is not, by definition, obsolete. Is it awful? Yes. Is it ugly? Oh, most definitely. Is it laughed at by slick salesmen and an object of disdain for trendy millenials? A resounding YES. But is it obsolete? By definition, no. -Dave On 05/17/2017 07:45 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
It's obsolete
Bill Degnan twitter: billdeg vintagecomputer.net On May 17, 2017 7:35 PM, "Dave McGuire via vcf-midatlantic" < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
On 05/17/2017 07:33 PM, william degnan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
..I used cobol when I worked at dupont tso/JCL (Damn autocorrect)
Cobol is obsolete though. My professional opinion
Your bank statement would disagree with you.
Cobol is *out of fashion*. Obsolete doesn't mean quite the same thing.
-Dave
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
-- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
There is a good probability I can get you in touch with some MicroFocus product people if you like. I bet you could get some interesting numbers from them. Let me know. -- Jason On 05/17/2017 04:11 PM, dave.g4ugm--- via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
I couldn't be certain, but for a long time the MicroFocus products were the "goto" compilers for folks moving off IBM Mainframes. I am not sure what their current status, but they are certainly highly featured on their web sites. They have been around so long that perhaps they are no legacy...
Dave
P.S. now you can write decent BASIC Cobol should be a snip. Three or four days with the manual and you would be enough for you to start Stock Control packages, just what the museum needs.
-----Original Message----- From: vcf-midatlantic [mailto:vcf-midatlantic- bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic Sent: 17 May 2017 22:57 To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> Cc: Evan Koblentz <evan@vcfed.org> Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] COBOL
Relax: I don't intend to learn COBOL. :)
Lots of tech reporters are writing stories about why COBOL is dead/obsolete. They're wrong. I am writing a story about COBOL's merits, roadmap, etc. -- already working on setting up some interviews with people in the ISO standards community, IBM, and so on.
Here's a specific question for you guys. The page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compilers#COBOL_compilers lists lists nine COBOL compilers. Other than IBM and Gnu, which are the most common ones used in industry? (banks, federal agencies, etc.)
________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit
evan@vcfed.org (646) 546-9999
www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation
Evan, If you want to talk to my cousin who is still programming COBOL, then contact me off list. He works for UPS and used to work for Sony. I'm sure that he can give you some info. On Wed, May 17, 2017 at 5:56 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Relax: I don't intend to learn COBOL. :)
Lots of tech reporters are writing stories about why COBOL is dead/obsolete. They're wrong. I am writing a story about COBOL's merits, roadmap, etc. -- already working on setting up some interviews with people in the ISO standards community, IBM, and so on.
Here's a specific question for you guys. The page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compilers#COBOL_compilers lists lists nine COBOL compilers. Other than IBM and Gnu, which are the most common ones used in industry? (banks, federal agencies, etc.)
________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit
evan@vcfed.org (646) 546-9999
www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation
-- Jeff Brace - ark72axow@gmail.com Sent from my Commodore 64 ========================================================
On 05/17/2017 05:56 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Relax: I don't intend to learn COBOL. :)
Lots of tech reporters are writing stories about why COBOL is dead/obsolete. They're wrong. I am writing a story about COBOL's merits, roadmap, etc. -- already working on setting up some interviews with people in the ISO standards community, IBM, and so on.
For anyone wondering what came of this: I filed a story to my editor tonight, and it'll probably be published (www.techrepublic.com) tomorrow or Monday. I think you guys will like it, and I thank you all for the healthy debate. Because of the debate I was able to ask smart questions to executives from IBM and Micro Focus. I'll post the link when it is available.
participants (6)
-
Dave McGuire -
dave.g4ugm＠gmail.com -
Evan Koblentz -
Jason Howe -
Jeffrey Brace -
william degnan