Were the Spanish variable names at least chosen to clearly convey the purposes of the variables to those who spoke Spanish?
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [[email protected]] on behalf of Tony Thigpen [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 3:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: New Jersey Pleas for COBOL Coders for Mainframes Amid Coronavirus Pandemic Many years ago, a programmer where I worked was told to write a program in Cobol instead of RPG (which he preferred). So he did, but all the variables were in Spanish. Management was not impressed. This was in North Alabama early 1980's and there there was not even one Mexican restaurant in town back then, not even Taco Bell (if you call it Mexican) so nobody really spoke Spanish. (FYI, he was from Mexico, moved to the US, served in the Army, married a girl from Alabama and was most-likely the only real Mexican in 200 miles. He did get his citizenship while I knew him.) Tony Thigpen Seymour J Metz wrote on 4/6/20 1:33 PM: > The words may be recognizable but not mean what you think. It's rare for a > keyword to be more than casually related to the native language meanings. > > As for clear variable names, that's an issue of good style rather than > something dictated by the language syntax, except for a few abominations > whose names shall not sully my keyboard. > > > -- > Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz > http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 > > > ________________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of > Bob Bridges <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 1:27 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: New Jersey Pleas for COBOL Coders for Mainframes Amid > Coronavirus Pandemic > > It's why I said "especially at first". Once you get used to a language, it > makes little difference to you whether you write "ADDI RG5,LDL" or "ADD > LAMDA-LEVEL TO SUBTOT". But when you're first learning a language, and > especially when you're learning your ~first~ language, yeah, it really > helps. > > That PL/C teacher I had in college was pretty good at this. "If you're > writing a program to compare two numbers and tell you which is larger, > what's the first thing you have to do?", he asked us. After we'd worn > ourselves out on wrong guesses ("print the larger number", "no, compare the > two numbers" etc) he said "No, the very first thing you have to do is GET > THE FIRST NUMBER". And he wrote on the blackboard "GET NUMBER1". In PL/1, > "GET" is a perfectly acceptable verb, so we were "writing a program" (well, > he was writing it, but we were learning algorithmic thought at least) > without even noticing at first the issue of syntax. > > I'm not saying I can understand APL as intuitively as REXX. (Ok, I'm not > saying I can understand APL intuitively at all.) But it makes a lot less > difference to me now than it did fifty years ago; I know that once I've > become familiar with a language, it'll seem pretty natural. > > --- > Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 > > /* By afflictions, God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled > us. When he makes the world too hot for us to hold, we let it go. -John > Powell */ > > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Seymour J Metz > Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 13:04 > > Well, it helps if the keywords from your native language mean the same as > they do in your native language. To say nothing of keywords like 77 and 88. > > ________________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of > Bob Bridges <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 12:43 PM > > Yeah, I saw that line too. I don't know of ~any~ 3GL algorithmic languages > that are very "English-like", although I suppose it helps to have > recognizable words to program with, especially at first when you're not used > to programming. > > (DYLAKOR touted DYL-280II as a 4GL, but IM-not-so-humble-O it simply isn't. > It is a very handy 3GL, but that's all.) > > -----Original Message----- > From: Seymour J Metz > Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 05:19 > > 1. The check's in the mail > 2. It must be true - I heard it from a friend of a friend of a friend > 3. COBOL is English like > > BTW, CODASYL had input from more than Honeywell. > > ________________________________________ > From: Gabe Goldberg [[email protected]] > Sent: Monday, April 6, 2020 12:26 AM > > Better article... > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
