If I ever praised COBOL, I must have had a gun to my head at the time! Generally, the more PL/I like a language is, the better I like it. The original if flawed assertion that COBOL was "English like" explains a lot. English is a basket case of a language.
Sampai jumpa lagi! On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 10:45 AM, David Crayford <[email protected]> wrote: > Make up your mind Wayne. It's was only a couple of weeks ago you sent me > email praising COBOL! > > On 03/08/2013, at 8:17 AM, Wayne Bickerdike <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Aww, it was getting interesting. Not been the same since the days of >> Ali and Frazier. >> >> Personally, I wish C had never seen the light of day and PL/I had the >> place of COBOL. >> >> On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 4:06 AM, John Gilmore <[email protected]> wrote: >>> I don't think you are really interested in how a qsort-like procedure >>> is implemented in PL/I, and I am not at all open-minded about the >>> relative merits of C and PL/I. >>> >>> I do, however, want to make one final comment on your last post. >>> Compile-time binding is not a 'trick'. It is preferable to >>> execution-time binding when it meets the requirements of a situation. >>> >>> That said, our differences are visceral, not intellectual; further >>> exchanges between us will not clarify any issue; they would only >>> produce more acrimony. I shall try to avoid you here on IBM-MAIN, but >>> that may not always be possible if we both contribute to a thread. I >>> have put you on my kill list so that I will not see your posts unless >>> they are part of a thread to which I have already contributed or >>> quoted by someone else; and that should help. >>> >>> Good luck! >>> >>> On 8/2/13, David Crayford <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> On 2/08/2013 11:47 PM, John Gilmore wrote: >>>>> As it happens a PL/I generic statement can distinguish the two sorting >>>>> schemes in the example you cite very readily. The first has two >>>>> arguments, the second three, so that, simplistically, >>>>> >>>>> declare generic_sort generic(sort1 when(*,*), sort2 when(*,*,*)) ; >>>>> >>>>> does the job at compile time. (It can be done at execution time too, >>>>> but this is not the place for an explication of how.) >>>> >>>> I'm not interested in compile time tricks. How would you code the >>>> equivilent of the C qsort() function in PL/I? >>>> Does the PL/I runtime even have such a function? >>>> >>>>> Your catholic taste in statement-level languages is admirable, much >>>>> less parochial than mine: I have never been able to include COBOL >>>>> among the languages I approve. I have, for my sins, had to confront a >>>>> good deal of it; but close acquaintance has not made me fonder of it. >>>>> What must be conceded is that the post-CODASYL language is improving. >>>>> It is useful to have substrings even if one must call them reference >>>>> modifications. >>>> >>>> I made good money coding COBOL in the 90s so I approve of it. I write >>>> code to put food on the table not for religious reasons. >>>> I would rather be employed writing code in a language I dislike instead >>>> of unemployed coding for fun. The more languages I >>>> can master the more strings to my bow. Adaptability is important in the >>>> software industry. >>>> >>>>> >>>>> 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 >>>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >>>> send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >>> >>> >>> -- >>> 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 >> >> >> >> -- >> Wayne V. Bickerdike >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >> send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Wayne V. Bickerdike ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
