From: arne@vajhoej.dk   
      
   On 12/1/2025 8:15 PM, bill wrote:   
   > On 12/1/2025 8:06 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:   
   >> But last century then Cobol and Basic were the two easiest   
   >> languages to learn and Cobol was one of the languages with   
   >> most jobs. So it seems likely that a large number of bad   
   >> programmers picked Cobol. Bringing bad habits with them.   
   >>   
   >> Today I would expect that crowd to pick client side JavaScript   
   >> and server side PHP.   
   >>   
   >> There is also something in the Cobol language.   
   >>   
   >> Large files with one data division, lots of paragraphs   
   >> and lots of perform's is easy to code, but it is also   
   >> bad for reusable code.   
   >>   
   >> It is sort of the same as having large C or Pascal files   
   >> with all variables global and all functions/procedures   
   >> without arguments.   
   >>   
   >> It is possible to do it right, but when people have   
   >> to chose between the easy way and the right way, then ...   
   >   
   > I take it you have never worked in a real COBOL shop.   
      
   That is true.   
      
   I was with the Fortran people not the Cobol people.   
      
   But that does not change that:   
   * back in those days then there were some people   
      doing Cobol that should not have - this is widely   
      known - I believe the not so nice name for them   
      back then was "list programmers" (I was told about   
      that by a Cobol programmer when I took the DEC course   
      VMS for Programmers back in the mid 80's)   
   * PERFORM of paragraphs is not a good way to   
      write reusable code   
      
   Arne   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)