Please don't top post. Singer X.J. Wang wrote: > On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 11:04, <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote: >> Chris Geldenhuis wrote: >> > >> > Has anyone on this list had any success with installing and using Open >> > Cobol on RH or CentOS? >> > >> > Any pointers would be very welcome. >> > >> > I have Googled and am working with Vince on the Open Cobol mailing >> list >> > to try to resolve installation problems. >> >> *sigh* >> <pulls brown paper bag over head> >> ObAdmission: I wrote *way* too much COBOL a long time ago, in a galaxy >> far >> away.... >> >> It really is past time to migrate to another language, y'know. You could >> probably move it to something like perl fairly easily, or even *bleah* >> java. > Yes, lets move millions of lines of tested business code to Perl... and > what testing? we don't need to test it. Why on *earth* would you think I would suggest not testing? Rather, if it were up to me, I'd run them in parallel for a year (so as to include year-end closing). Among the reasons I suggest it is to a) get rid of the tested spaghetti code (and yes, I've maintained crap like that, though not in a lot of years, thankfully); b) structure it using control structures that all modern language have (as opposed to, say, PERFORM 1500-DUMMY-PARAGRAPH THROUGH 1500-DUMMY-PARAGRAPH-EXIT VARYING I FROM 1 WHILE I < 200, which yes, I left a lot of behind me, faking for/next loops that way), and, finally, c) it's getting harder and harder to find anyone who knows COBOL, since it's not a required course, and hasn't been for a lot of years.... mark mark