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From: amigo2@ihuxq.UUCP (John Hobson)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: COBOL
Message-ID: <772@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Mar-84 14:03:05 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.772
Posted: Tue Mar 13 14:03:05 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Mar-84 08:19:46 EST
References: <34100007@uo-vax1.UUCP> <755@ihuxq.UUCP> <908@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 33

Barry Gold says:

>>	What's the matter with COBOL? asks John Hobson.
>>
>>	One acquaintance was unfortunate/silly enough to sign up for
>>	Control Data's programmer training course.  It included a
>>	unit on COBOL; programs were submitted on PUNCHED CARDS.  He
>>	discovered that it is possible to receive more error messages
>>	than you had statements in your program by misspelling one word.
>>
>>	The word?  IDENTIFICATION

A couple of comments:

First, when I made my submission, I had my tongue firmly in my
cheek.  I probably should have given the ":-)" symbol, but I felt
that my sarcasm was heavy enough to forgo it.

For those of you who do not understand why misspelling IDENTIFICATION
should get you into so much trouble, it is because this word is
required in the first line of every COBOL program.  Because it was
not there, the compiler kept looking for it on every card of the
program, and complained when it did not find it.  Every COBOL
compiler I have ever played with (admittedly just IBM and DEC) would
allow you to abbreviate IDENTIFICATION as ID.

When I learned COBOL, I too wrote my programs on punched cards.  I
once had the card that said PROCEDURE DIVISION come up as the 6th
card in my deck, and I too had more error messages than I had source
lines.
				John Hobson
				AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL
				ihnp4!ihuxq!amigo2