From: djheydt@kithrup.com   
      
   In article <2015071214173643672-john.w.kennedy@gmail.com>,   
   John W Kennedy   wrote:   
   >On 2015-07-11 21:28:36 +0000, Michael R N Dolbear said:   
   >   
   >> "Michelle Bottorff"  wrote   
   >>   
   >>> Brian M. Scott  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>> That's correct.  In German:   
   >> [...]   
   >>>> Gestern schlug er sie.   
   >>>> Yesterday hit he her.   
   >>   
   >>> Thank you!   
   >>   
   >>> ... I had previously been told that in German the verb always came last.   
   >>   
   >>> Must be one of those urban legend type thingies.  :)   
   >>   
   >> I was disabused of that when I, having discovered /French/ COBOL and   
   >> hearing of a similar German COBOL, asked how it was handled.   
   >>   
   >> "Not imperative verbs - and all COBOL verbs are imperative".   
   >>   
   >> (Simple pre-processor if anyone wonders about implementation).   
   >   
   >Someone back in 1959 or so actually objected to the COBOL IF statement,   
   >because "if" is not a verb.   
      
   In programming languages, any noun can be verbed.   
      
   And a verb nouned, if needed.  Hal was just telling me a story   
   about a set of programs he wrote, for which he was called in from   
   another program because he was the only one who knew how to be   
   sufficiently sneaky in COBOL; and all the others were wailing,   
   "We can't do that, you've got unstrings in there!"   
      
   "So 'unstring' is a noun?"   
      
   "Actually, 'unstring' is a verb.'   
      
   So there you are, a verb nouned.   
      
   --   
   Dorothy J. Heydt   
   Vallejo, California   
   djheydt at gmail dot com   
   Should you wish to email me, you'd better use the gmail edress.   
   Kithrup's all spammy and hotmail's been hacked.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)