On 17/06/2026 19:01, Paul Koning wrote:
On Jun 17, 2026, at 1:21 PM, David Wade via cctalk
<[email protected]> wrote:
On 17/06/2026 15:56, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
On 6/17/2026 10:51 AM, Johan Helsingius via cctalk wrote:
On 17/06/2026 4:49 pm, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
I came on the scene of a Honeywell to Univac-1100 migration 46 years
ago. Mostly COBOL a little Fortran and a tiny bit of other silly
stuff. Not only was there no thought of converting the COBOL to Ada
at the time but the last time I checked they are still running some
of the COBOL I wrote when I was there.
Sure, but would anyone starting a new software project choose
COBOL as the implementation language?
Other than the dearth of programmers, why not? What's wrong with the
language when the project is in its domain?
Nothing, but we will disagree on defining its domain which I believe
must include hardware and software.
So if I am extending something written in COBOL on an IBM Mainframe
or Mid-range then yes, that Is the domain of COBOL.
For something thats going to run in the cloud with a web front end
unlikely.
No, the domain for COBOL is an application domain. It can be run on
any machine that has a compiler for it. It's true that some machines
(IBM/360, VAX) have instructions specifically designed to do the
decimal arithmetic that COBOL likes as single CISC operations, but the
lack of specific instructions like that has never been a compiler
limitation. No more than the lack of a hardware stack keeps you from
writing recursive applications, or prevents compilers from compiling
such programs.
That is the trouble with this list. Pure technical. You CAN run COBOL on
anything, but could you convince a 30 year old project manager to let you..
.. the domain must be the hardware, software and liveware...
paul
Dave
