🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 08 May 2000 21:43:20 -0400, Carl R. Friend
<carl.friend@prescienttech.com> wrote:
>   One word:  "COBOL".
>   In a few more: "The right tool for the job."

Is there a Visual Cobol?
You know, one that lets you design screens and hook code to specific events
wihtout having to write mountains of boilerplate message handlers and the
like?

I'd be even less done with the system now than if I'd used C++ Builder if
I'd had to code all that crap by hand. I'd probably only be delivering the
first major module right about now, instead of being nearly done.

>   There is room for more than one programming language on the
>planet, you know.

Absolutely. I do believe in the right language for the job, be that language
C, assembler, COBOL, Perl, or even BASIC (which is unsurpassed for
quick-and-dirty knockoffs on micros). There is a place for a suitably
extended Pascal in there, too.

>  That said, I agree that Pascal is little more
>than a "toy" language and that the expenditure in time of under-
>graduates learning it would be much better spent elsewhere.

I, too, have tutored an undergrad in a Pascal class, and saw firsthand what
problems it causes. I don't have a better answer, though, because other
languages have their own sets of problems when used as a first language.
Some schools are going to Java for an introductory language, but I have no
experience with it, and so can't comment on its suitability.