Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 2024-09-25, 186282@ud0s4.net <186283@ud0s4.net> wrote:
 

COBOL ... well ... would rather NOT use it.
The whole "self documenting" idea turned out
to be crap - COBOL is *hard* to understand
sometimes.

 
Yes, the dream of a language that a manager could read
was rather naive.  As Robert L. Glass (under the pseudonym
Miles Benson) once wrote in his column in Computerworld:
"His programs were so readable that he once had one
published in the _Saturday Evening Post_."
 
But it left a lot of room for humour, e.g. "The Common
Business-Oriented Goldilocks", which tells the story
in COBOL.
 
I joined a PPOE at the same time as a new department head
who was quite a character.  Our inside sales manager,
Al Tannock, popped in and said to him: "Say something
in COBOL."  Instantly our guy shot back:
 
    EXAMINE ROOM REPLACING ALL TANNOCKS WITH SPACES.