Rick Fochtman wrote:
---------------------<snip>--------------------------
when I was a freshman at (The) Ohio State University waaaay back in
1975, I
took a PL/I class - we were told then that this was *such* an all
encompassing and easy-to-learn language that COBOL and FORTRAN would be
non-existant as a commercial programming language within 5 years ....
well, they were half right - haven;t seen many Fortran shops recently ...
can you say: IF x-3 100,200,300 (I may have actual syntax wrong)
--------------------<unsnip>----------------------
IF ( X-3) 100,200,300
I was taught that PL/1 is the "UN-COBOL" in 1971, when I took it and
ended up teaching it! Everybody was talking about the I/O of COBOL and
the computational power of FORTRAN. I have to admit, I prefer PL/1 over
FORTRAN. I never learned COBOL so I don't really miss it. Somehow,
DECLARE'ing a FIXED BINARY(31,0) seems easier than trying to remember
which form of COMP is the COBOL equivalent. And COBOL doesn't even have
all the data types that I use in defining SMF records to PL/1. YMMV, of
course.
Remember when APL was going to solve all the world's problems? I know of
one APL shop, but I haven't seen a FORTRAN shop in 35+ years.
I believe parts of Boeing and the United Space Alliance still
use a fair amount of FORTRAN. When I taught some LE classes
there both shops had students asking about LE support of
FORTRAN.
Kind regards,
-Steve Comstock
The Trainer's Friend, Inc.
303-393-8716
http://www.trainersfriend.com
z/OS Application development made easier
* Our classes include
+ How things work
+ Programming examples with realistic applications
+ Starter / skeleton code
+ Complete working programs
+ Useful utilities and subroutines
+ Tips and techniques
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