From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnss!ihldt!wrv Newsgroups: net.flame Title: COBOL is a joke Article-I.D.: ihldt.496 Posted: Thu Jun 10 11:09:05 1982 Received: Fri Jun 11 03:59:47 1982 The problem with structured COBOL is that it was never designed as a structured language, and hence any efforts to make it be so have failed MISERABLY. Take for example: (1) READ MASTREC AT END MOVE 1 TO EOF-FLAG, (2) IF NREC < 4 THEN (3) BADNUMRECS = YES (4) ELSE (5) MOVE 1 TO FLAGS_OK, (6) PERFORM CLOSEOUT, (7) MOVE 0 TO BADNUMRECS. Now all you COBOL fans, tell me: 1. Are lines 6 & 7 part of the ELSE, or part of the AT END clause. 2. Will lines 6 and 7 execute at all AT END conditions or only when the ELSE is executed? Also I will mention that COBOL (at least HARRIS Structured Cobol) has some perverted attitudes towards using lower case letters in variable initializers. The language is full of inconsistencies, example: PROGRAM ID. PROGRAM-NAME. Why the period after PROGRAM-ID?? It is ridiculous, based on the way periods work in most other places, the period after PROGRAM ID. The delimiter should just be a space. COBOL is a wordy language, and difficult to learn. I have never enjoyed programming anything in cobol, and I believe (as mentioned by someone else before) that any competentprogrammer given a complete library can write faster and more effectively that the COBOL guy. -Bill Vogel BTL, Indian Hill ...ihnss!ihldt!wrv