Thomas Berg's notion that COBOL is hard to obfuscate is less true than it once was.
REDEFINES has always had its obfuscatory uses; but the availability of pointers now makes data-type punning easy in a language that has no tradition of its appropriate, in-good-taste use. Let me repeat myself. COBOL is not a defensible language, but that is not important. COBOL is, massively; and all those millions of lines of COBOL source must be dealt with. They cannot be wished away, and they cannot be replaced at all readily in the short term. They can perhaps be refurbished in ways that do not aggravate the problems their existence poses. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
