Had never considered Roger Moor, IPSA, or you in a COBOL context. Interesting. Thanks!
> On Apr 6, 2020, at 5:04 PM, Robert Bernecky <[email protected]> wrote: > > Well, the term is borderline rude: about poking around where maybe you > should not be. In the context of my work on IPSCOBOL, it > was what Roger Moore meant in attempting to break our > shiny, new compiler, preferably using reproducible means. > > Today, it's generally called unit testing, including > blackbox and white-box testing. > > My testing revealed several code faults, but not many, in the compiler. > Roger's careful design of the code generator kept most of > them out of generated code, except for a few edge conditions. > > BTW, IPSCOBOL was a superb compiler. It would compile huge > (i.e., normal-sized) COBOL programs in a few seconds, while > the IBM mainframe compiler would take a half hour or more to do > the same job. Also, IPSCOBOL error messages were deluxe. > E.g., if you tried to read from a closed file, the IBM compiler > would give you a core dump with about a box of paper for your > troubles, from which you could (eventually) deduce what had > gone wrong. Our compiler would issue a terse error message, > along the lines of: "Attempt to read from closed file: foo". > > Bob > > > On 2020-04-06 4:33 p.m., 'Jim Russell' via Chat wrote: >> Interesting, thanks. What is brown-thumbing? >> >>> On Apr 6, 2020, at 4:04 PM, Devon McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> brown-thumbing the IPSCOBOL compiler, >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > -- > Robert Bernecky > Snake Island Research Inc > 18 Fifth Street > Ward's Island > Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 > > [email protected] > tel: +1 416 203 0854 > text/cell: +1 416 996 4286 > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
