[CentOS] OT Open Cobol

Fri Apr 27 15:26:44 UTC 2012
m.roth at 5-cent.us <m.roth at 5-cent.us>

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....

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