Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!apollo!gallen From: gallen@apollo.uucp (Gary Allen) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: C/IBM Message-ID: <3cf44fa2.d8e9@apollo.uucp> Date: 29 Jun 88 18:41:00 GMT References: <16316@brl-adm.ARPA> Reply-To: gallen@diskless.UUCP (Gary Allen) Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, MA Lines: 41 In article <16316@brl-adm.ARPA> PAAAAAR%CALSTATE.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu writes: >Both (Root Boy) Jim Cottrell>and Chuck_M_Grandgent@cup.portal.com >have recently had the courage to praise COBOL. > >I agree with them. COBOL and Cwere both developed by programmers for p [......] If COBOL (or for that matter BASIC or FORTRAN) is the answer, I really don't have any interest in the question!! What a snob, huh? [......] >both C and COBOL have been used for operating systems and compilers! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Let me guess, A reverse Polish BASIC interpreter with 80 column input on punched cards, right? >Trouble is many people don't learn clever COBOL. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Oxymoronic!! [.....] >splitting the cents and dollars up in a field containing money. > >And most important of all -- how do you do exact decimal arithmetic on money >in any language accept COBOL? Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. Programming languages are tools; a particular tool is for a particular purpose. No carpenter would argue that his hammer was as good as his power saw. >(Personally I don't want my wages suffering floating point round off:-) Neither do I, but accountants have no need for self-documenting device drivers :-) >Dick Botting Gary Allen Apollo Computer Chelmsford, MA {decvax,yale,umix}!apollo!gallen "Even the finest shoe makes a terrible hat" -- Japanese proverb from Bartlett's.