Thread: cobol

  1. #1
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    cobol

    is it still usefull to learn cobol or will this language disappear?Which languages are nowadays "hot"?

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    I recently read that Cobol is still used quite a lot, but mainly because a lot of software used to be written in Cobol. So it is mainly maintaining those software.

    Hot languages:

    - C
    - C++
    - C#
    - Java
    - Visual Basic
    - Python
    - Perl

    and many more. (It just depends on which kind of applications you're talking)

  3. #3
    Code Goddess Prelude's Avatar
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    >is it still usefull to learn cobol or will this language disappear?
    A lot of legacy systems use COBOL, so the potential for finding a position maintaining or porting that code is high. It's also hardly a dead language as new code is being written in business situations all the time. So yes, it is useful to learn COBOL if only to increase your marketability. Everyone seems to think COBOL is dead and they don't bother learning it when there are a great many jobs that will hire you in an instant if you have COBOL experience. The .NET platform also supports their version of COBOL, though I haven't seen it yet and can't tell you if it's worth anything.

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  4. #4
    End Of Line Hammer's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Shiro
    I recently read that Cobol is still used quite a lot, but mainly because a lot of software used to be written in Cobol.
    COBOL is used a lot where I work.. it's on a good 'ol fashioned mainframe! There's plenty of programmers that work here too, doing that kinda stuff.
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    I learned Cobol 74 and Cobol 85. They kind of suck. The only good thing I learned was related to datafile management, which I can turn around and apply to C.

  6. #6
    ¡Amo fútbol!
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    Aren't there no restrictions on a variables size in COBOL, or is that FORTRAN?

    P.S. I know the system memory restricts the size. Other than that though, is there a restriction?

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    You realize that if you tell your boss you know Cobol, then you will be whisked off to work maintaining incredibly boring business apps til the end of time...It happened to a friend of mine
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    Aren't there no restrictions on a variables size in COBOL, or is that FORTRAN?
    In Cobol, there are divisions that define the size of the varaibles. There is a restriction on the percision of calculations. The data types are not so obvious but behind the code are data types just like any other language. Cobol is like VB 6 in the sense that it is written so that it looks less like code and more like the english language. Cobol 74 and 85 are designed for business, hence the name COmmon Business Oriented Language (COBOL). It's a procedural language which yields compact but limited code for generating reports and reading files. It's not too difficult to learn the language definition, but than you are stuck on a hill afterwards still looking at the big mountain represented by C/C++/Java/C#.

    I hear that fujitsu is developing Cobol for .net. The OOP version of Cobol, but Í don't think I'm going to bother with it, not so long as the OS is written in C/C++.

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    I've done some fortran programming. In fortran 77 you have to make your variables 6 letters long, all uppercase and have to have an editor that supports fortran mode or else you have to do the spacing just right. All of these problems were fixed in fortran 90 I think most modern fortran 77 compilers will extend it. Another strange thing was that the compiler could
    tell if variables starting with I, J, K, L, M, N were implied integers.

    http://www.fortran.com/fortran/F77_std/rjcnf0001.html

  10. #10
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    I hate COBOL and i wish it gets banned.
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  11. #11
    It's full of stars adrianxw's Avatar
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    >>>
    In fortran 77 you have to make your variables 6 letters long, all uppercase
    <<<

    Compiler dependent. Both of the F77 compilers I've used did not have those retrictions, (Gould F77 and DEC VMS F77).
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