Hi Bill,
You said: "...It seems to help with maintenance and updating of large,
complex commercial programs..."
Back in the mid-'80s, I used to support a 3-letter software vendor's
Payroll package.
The source was unreadable because of the amount and size of copybooks.
When compiled, the listing was so big that it was near impossible to follow.
Needless to say, the variable and paragraph names didn't help too much.
Have you ever tried reading a DMS for CICS (again, 40 years ago)
generated COBOL listing?
My point is that anything can be unreadable, including wordy COBOL.
I used to code FORTRAN, ASSEMBLER and APL for a living (early '80s).
These 3 can be readable if there are departmental standards in place.
Caveat: I still program Rexx and given the chance would (and have)
program(med) PL/I -- my favourite compiled language.
(Edsger W. Dijkstra be damned. (If he had to work in a commercial (aka
"real") environment (instead of his ivory tower), his opinion might've
been tempered a bit.) )
Regards,
David
On 2023-03-28 10:25, billogden wrote:
I myself dislike COBOL for the very simple and personal reason that it's so
WORDY.
*******
I am not a COBOL programmer, except for some very minor attempts a long time
ago. However, I very much respect the proper use of the WORDY aspect. It
seems to help with maintenance and updating of large, complex commercial
programs that were originally written (in good, well-thought out words) long
ago. The language itself has been carefully updated and seems to lack the
constantly changing, sometimes not-so-well-thought-out aspect of many of the
PC languages today. (And, since so much of COBOL programming seems to be in
significant financial areas, it seems to avoid the frequent "little problem
details" that apparently afflict the "more modern" languages.)
Very short story: Long ago, my manager and I were sent to a smaller, rather
"northern" country to evaluate (to sell to customers) a potential
application program written there. I cannot remember the application, but I
do remember seeing a listing that fit on a single page, being an extreme
opposite of WORDY. It was APL, of course, and even the authors needed
considerable practice to be able to explain how it worked. (We rejected the
potential SW product and managed to escape without being murdered.)
Bill Ogden
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