[cctalk] Re: What constitutes a dead computer language

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Jun 22, 2026, at 3:39 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> 
> wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 22 Jun 2026, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
>> Wow.  I've never heard of that, or seen it done.  And I would certainly 
>> never have considered doing so myself.
>> Then again, one of my DEC colleagues wrote a parser in COBOL, but that was 
>> more a "watch this -- hold my beer" type of thing.
> 
> Wow
> Was there also a wager involved?

No, but he was a member of the COBOL compiler team so it was a case of pushing 
the limits of what he worked on every day.

I also remember running into him late one night, in the middle of a debug 
session.  I asked what he was working on.  Answer "packed decimal 
exponentiation".  My question "what is that used for?"  Answer: "compound 
interest in COBOL programming".

Oh yeah.

        paul