Re: [MacPerl] Cobol replacement?

[Matthias Ulrich Neeracher <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>]

mark@cheers.jsc.nasa.gov (Mark Manning/Muniz Eng.) writes:
>I read an article in the ACM Communication's magazine this
>morning about COBOL and I was wondering - Would PERL (or
>MacPerl) fit the requirements presented in the article?

Probably not.

>I will have to bring the magazine to work in order to post
>the requirements presented.  But speaking generally they
>were (if I remember correctly):
>
>1. Accuracy (no rounding of numbers).

There was a long discussion on this topic in perl5-porters a few months ago.
Basically, a programming language would have to use integer arithmetic (or even
decimal arithmetic, as COBOL did) to acheive that, and Perl does not guarantee
sufficiently-sized integers.

>2. Accuracy in reading files (sequential and random).

I assume that this means that no bytes are lost or silently converted. Perl can
easily meet this criterium.

>3. Decent built in sort routine (no losing of records).

Like 2), this seems to be a criterium much more relevant in the 1950s and 60s
than today.

>4. Easily used/read.  (ie: Understandable by the average businessman).

Definitely not true for Perl, whatever its other merits. Of the current VHLLs,
Python might come closest to this ideal.

>I know this is more of a general Perl question/statement
>but I figured "What the heck?"  We could use a break from
>the newline/embedded thing which has been going around.  :-)

I'm not sure that I agree that the ebbing off of one tiresome thread leaves a
hole that immediately needs to be filled with an off-topic thread. Maybe some
of the readers of this list would just prefer a bit less traffic instead?

Matthias

-----
Matthias Neeracher   <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>   http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri
 "This comment reminds me of the APL93 meeting where people declared APL to 
  be a thriving, growing language. It's like going to a wake where only the 
  next-of-kin don't seem to be aware that the guest of honor is actually
  dead."  -- Richard J. Gaylord <gaylord-100993020849@mm-mac18.mse.uiuc.edu>

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