Re: Article on new mainframe use

According to Lawrence D'Oliveiro  <ldo@nz.invalid>:

String processing adds bulk and inefficiency.
Granted, maybe not enough to matter in the face of a typical database
query.

>
Remember what Knuth (or maybe it was Hoare) said: “Premature optimization
is the root of all evil”. String processing has to be in the language for
other reasons (think: composing messages and processing input when
interacting with a human user), why not use it for this?

Interactimg?  Human user?  COBOL was designed for computers that took their
inputs from mag tapes or card readers and sent their output to printers or
other tapes.  The human user had lights and switches.  By the 1960s most
computers had a console terminal but even so the interaction tended to
be MOUNT CHECK FORM XYZ123 IN PRINTER, not anything complex.

I realize times have changed, viz, the Star Trek program, but in the era
when COBOL was designed the goal was to keep the expensive computer doing
work, not hanging around waiting for someone to type something.

Also, it is quite common now to use text-based protocols for networks
(e.g. messages in JSON format). That may sound inefficient, but it eases
debugging so much, that has become a major consideration.

I see that IBM has JSON GENERATE and JSON PARSE for just this situation.

--
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