IBM Enterprise COBOL V5 announced

[Frank Swarbrick]

http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_ca/4/897/ENUS213-144/index.html&lang=en&request_locale=en

[Alistair Maclean]

On Thursday, 25 April 2013 16:58:23 UTC+1, Frank Swarbrick wrote:
> http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_ca/4/897/ENUS213-144/index.html&lang=en&request_locale=en

Google groups adds a button with the legend "Translate message into English".

:-)

[Pete Dashwood]

Frank Swarbrick wrote:
> http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_ca/4/897/ENUS213-144/index.html&lang=en&request_locale=en

Nice to see the mainframe catching up with facilities like XML and a movable
comment indicator... :-)

Before you know it they'll be using mixed case...

So, now that the compiler writers have shouldered the responsibility for
performance and optimization, does that mean there'll be no more riveting
posts about COBOL performance in CLC?

Given that performance has not really been an issue in COBOL for some time
now, I have to wonder why they have invested a lot of time in this. I guess
if you have hardware with advanced instructions you might as well use it,
but I'm wondering whether this has been some computer science graduates
looking for an easy PhD... (IBM always looks good on a resume...)

At least it demonstrates some commitment to COBOL by IBM and who could not
be impressed by the stirring: "The future of IBM COBOL starts now!"

So the rest of us who used it prior to "now" were really just wasting our
time? :-)

The thing about futures is you never know how long they are going to be...

Still, in all seriousness, I wish them well.

Pete.
--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."

[Arnold Trembley]

On 5/4/2013 9:56 AM, Pete Dashwood wrote:
> Frank Swarbrick wrote:
>> http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_ca/4/897/ENUS213-144/index.html&lang=en&request_locale=en
>
>
> Nice to see the mainframe catching up with facilities like XML and a movable
> comment indicator... :-)
>
> Before you know it they'll be using mixed case...

> (SNIP)

I'm pretty sure IBM has supported mixed case since at least VS-COBOL II,
or roughly 20 years now. COBOL is not case sensitive for its keywords
and user defined names.

As a style convention I still see mostly upper-case COBOL, with
displayed messages in mixed case (which I use quite often).

I don't have a need to call C Library routines, but I suspect the rules
for matching case would be a bit more restrictive with external names.

> So, now that the compiler writers have shouldered the responsibility for
> performance and optimization, does that mean there'll be no more riveting
> posts about COBOL performance in CLC?
>
> Given that performance has not really been an issue in COBOL for some time
> now, I have to wonder why they have invested a lot of time in this. I guess
> if you have hardware with advanced instructions you might as well use it,
> but I'm wondering whether this has been some computer science graduates
> looking for an easy PhD... (IBM always looks good on a resume...)
>
> At least it demonstrates some commitment to COBOL by IBM and who could not
> be impressed by the stirring: "The future of IBM COBOL starts now!"
>
> So the rest of us who used it prior to "now" were really just wasting our
> time? :-)
>
> The thing about futures is you never know how long they are going to be...
>
> Still, in all seriousness, I wish them well.
>
> Pete.
>


--

http://www.arnoldtrembley.com/

[Pete Dashwood]

Arnold Trembley wrote:
> On 5/4/2013 9:56 AM, Pete Dashwood wrote:
>> Frank Swarbrick wrote:
>>> http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDoc.wss?docURL=/common/ssi/rep_ca/4/897/ENUS213-144/index.html&lang=en&request_locale=en
>>
>>
>> Nice to see the mainframe catching up with facilities like XML and a
>> movable comment indicator... :-)
>>
>> Before you know it they'll be using mixed case...
>> (SNIP)
>
> I'm pretty sure IBM has supported mixed case since at least VS-COBOL
> II, or roughly 20 years now. COBOL is not case sensitive for its
> keywords and user defined names.
>
> As a style convention I still see mostly upper-case COBOL, with
> displayed messages in mixed case (which I use quite often).

My point was that no-one USES mixed case; I know it has been available on
mainframes for a while. :-)

I switched to coding COBOL in lower case when I first started writing PC
COBOL with Micro Focus Workbench back on 16 bit. I moved to using Camel Case
for datanames (avoiding hyphens) when I switched to Fujitsu and started
writing OO COBOL components. I use Camel Case in C# as well. It's all really
what you're used to, but I have had mainframe people say they found it
difficult to read lower case. Convert exactly the same code into upper case
and suddenly it all becomes clear... :-)

>
> I don't have a need to call C Library routines, but I suspect the
> rules for matching case would be a bit more restrictive with external
> names.
>

Yes, I would think so.

I call C# from COBOL (and vice versa) without any problem at all but I make
sure that components used in this way are COM compliant. C# doesn't mangle
names as far as I can tell.

I think the important thing here is the support for the instruction set,
which just seems "right".

I notice they have made no attempt to implement the 2002 standard fully. If
they were really committed to a COBOL future, I would have thought they
would do that.

Mainframes are still a $20 billion dollar industry apparently so I guess it
won't hurt them to improve the COBOL.