From: John P Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I think that the definition needs to include something in respect to "human
readable".
Is JCL a programming language? Is SQL a programming language? Are HTML and
XML programming languages?
What about ISPF panel 'logic'; is that a programming language? It's human
readable, it controls processing flow (e.g. IF, ELSE, GOTO, EXIT), it
assigns variables, it checks data types (e.g. numeric, character, hex,
binary, etc), it performs string manipulation, and more.
There are things it lacks and should have (e.g. the ability to do looping
logic), and things it lacks and was never designed to have (e.g. the ability
to do file I/O). It's certainly not a 'general purpose' language. But for
what it was designed to do, it does it fairly well (except for the looping
thing).
To me, a language is a language when software is used to direct a computer
to take multiple logic paths based on different circumstances. This would
qualify things like panel logic and JCL as languages. It doesn't mean panel
logic or JCL can be used by themselves to create an airline ticket
reservation system, but they are 'languages' that control the behavior of
computers in specific circumstances to accomplish specific tasks.
No doubt there will many who disagree, so flame on! :-)
Dave Salt
SimpList(tm) - The easiest, most powerful way to surf a mainframe!
http://www.mackinney.com/products/SIM/simplist.htm
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