LOL, Didn't say it was my hands! Have you heard me play the violin? Been playing 50 years and still awful.
However, PL/I is my fiddle... On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 5:46 PM, David Crayford <dcrayf...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 3/08/2013 3:21 PM, Wayne Bickerdike wrote: >> >> If I ever praised COBOL, I must have had a gun to my head at the time! > > > You must be feeling suicidal in your old age mate! Didn't you say "I look at > COBOL like my old violin, ancient technology but still hard to beat in the > right hands"? > > >> Generally, the more PL/I like a language is, the better I like it. The >> original if flawed assertion that COBOL was "English like" explains a >> lot. English is a basket case of a language. > > > Especially when spoken with a thick yorkshire accent! ;) > > >> >> Sampai jumpa lagi! >> >> On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 10:45 AM, David Crayford <dcrayf...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >>> >>> Make up your mind Wayne. It's was only a couple of weeks ago you sent me >>> email praising COBOL! >>> >>> On 03/08/2013, at 8:17 AM, Wayne Bickerdike <wayn...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> Aww, it was getting interesting. Not been the same since the days of >>>> Ali and Frazier. >>>> >>>> Personally, I wish C had never seen the light of day and PL/I had the >>>> place of COBOL. >>>> >>>> On Sat, Aug 3, 2013 at 4:06 AM, John Gilmore <jwgli...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> I don't think you are really interested in how a qsort-like procedure >>>>> is implemented in PL/I, and I am not at all open-minded about the >>>>> relative merits of C and PL/I. >>>>> >>>>> I do, however, want to make one final comment on your last post. >>>>> Compile-time binding is not a 'trick'. It is preferable to >>>>> execution-time binding when it meets the requirements of a situation. >>>>> >>>>> That said, our differences are visceral, not intellectual; further >>>>> exchanges between us will not clarify any issue; they would only >>>>> produce more acrimony. I shall try to avoid you here on IBM-MAIN, but >>>>> that may not always be possible if we both contribute to a thread. I >>>>> have put you on my kill list so that I will not see your posts unless >>>>> they are part of a thread to which I have already contributed or >>>>> quoted by someone else; and that should help. >>>>> >>>>> Good luck! >>>>> >>>>> On 8/2/13, David Crayford <dcrayf...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> On 2/08/2013 11:47 PM, John Gilmore wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> As it happens a PL/I generic statement can distinguish the two >>>>>>> sorting >>>>>>> schemes in the example you cite very readily. The first has two >>>>>>> arguments, the second three, so that, simplistically, >>>>>>> >>>>>>> declare generic_sort generic(sort1 when(*,*), sort2 when(*,*,*)) ; >>>>>>> >>>>>>> does the job at compile time. (It can be done at execution time too, >>>>>>> but this is not the place for an explication of how.) >>>>>> >>>>>> I'm not interested in compile time tricks. How would you code the >>>>>> equivilent of the C qsort() function in PL/I? >>>>>> Does the PL/I runtime even have such a function? >>>>>> >>>>>>> Your catholic taste in statement-level languages is admirable, much >>>>>>> less parochial than mine: I have never been able to include COBOL >>>>>>> among the languages I approve. I have, for my sins, had to confront >>>>>>> a >>>>>>> good deal of it; but close acquaintance has not made me fonder of it. >>>>>>> What must be conceded is that the post-CODASYL language is improving. >>>>>>> It is useful to have substrings even if one must call them reference >>>>>>> modifications. >>>>>> >>>>>> I made good money coding COBOL in the 90s so I approve of it. I write >>>>>> code to put food on the table not for religious reasons. >>>>>> I would rather be employed writing code in a language I dislike >>>>>> instead >>>>>> of unemployed coding for fun. The more languages I >>>>>> can master the more strings to my bow. Adaptability is important in >>>>>> the >>>>>> software industry. >>>>>> >>>>>>> John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >>>>>>> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO >>>>>>> IBM-MAIN >>>>>> >>>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >>>>>> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA >>>>> >>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >>>>> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Wayne V. Bickerdike >>>> >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >>>> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >>> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> >> >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Wayne V. Bickerdike ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
