Author Topic: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth  (Read 7780 times)

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Offline AdminTopic starter

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COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« on: December 11, 2006, 11:19:16 AM »
"The 100th anniversary of the birth of programming language pioneer Grace Hopper was celebrated on 9 December. Widely credited as being the "mother" of the Cobol computer language her work was hugely influential."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6168489.stm

Offline Militoy

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Re: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2006, 09:34:23 PM »
COBOL is still alive – and I just read that it’s been around since 1959. I wasn’t aware that COBOL was quite that old, but I had my first class in COBOL and FORTRAN in high school in 1967. We actually started the class off learning to program an Olivetti Underwood Programma 101 – a glorified adding machine that could solve differential equations, Bessel functions and perform numerical integration. As I recollect, it was slow – but it actually used magnetic media, in the form of coated cards the size of the regular punch card. The COBOL language has suffered a lot of abuse over the years (“Compiles Only Because Of Luck”, etc.), but it’s been in active use for 47 years – so you can’t argue with its success in business.

Offline demon

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Re: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2006, 06:22:49 AM »
Still alive? I think future of robotics software fully loaded of managed code! MS CLR will rule the world :)

Offline JesseWelling

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Re: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2006, 11:56:11 AM »
i'd prefer not to start a flame war but I think Linux is the future of
robotics because it's a more open system. e.g. if you want to make
a Kernel module for a Linux system you don't have to have any ones
permission. that and Linux is adding more and more Real Time
support every Kernel version.

and you can apt-get (Debian is the best distro imho) a Fortan or Cobol compiler. :P

Offline Cognaut

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Re: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2006, 12:43:17 PM »
I second that.  I'm currently making the transition to Linux, C++, MySQL, etc.  I'm tearing myself away from MS.  I'll miss VB.   :(

Offline JesseWelling

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Re: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2006, 02:45:11 PM »
yea but you'll miss VB like a 7 year old misses his training wheels  ;)

Offline Cognaut

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Re: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« Reply #6 on: December 21, 2006, 03:12:53 PM »
hehe.  I'll just let that one slide.   ;D  VB is to VC++ as Mac is to PC.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2006, 09:41:20 PM by Cognaut »

Offline Militoy

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Re: COBOL, 100th anniversary of creators birth
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2006, 09:52:38 PM »
No Flame War – of course. Linux IS the future (and, as a matter of fact, the principle OS I use for work, and that our gurus use on our race robot). There’s a lot to be said for the portability of open source operating systems. I wouldn’t suggest using COBOL for running a robot, any more than I would suggest using the CPU from my 1985 Radio Shack “Tandy 100” in the Mars Sojourner Rover – (oops, strike that – already been done). Anyway, COBOL was optimized for business use, just like FORTRAN was set up for math, and Linux for human beings.

 


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