Programs
Letter to the COBOL Community
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I wonder about the composition of the soap box. What do we
want to accomplish as
a COBOL community and do we desire to alienate the trade press so much that we
can only expect negative articles about the COBOL community. COBOL is very much alive. A illustration could be the most recent release of PERCobol that now delivers to COBOL programmers the ability to take existing COBOL programs and deploy as EJBs, server applications, servlets, client applications, applets or Java Beans. COBOL is alive because vendors like LegacyJ, IBM, Merant, AcuCorp and others are investing in new COBOL technology. COBOL is alive because there remains enough interest to carry on the exhaustive and lengthy effort to bring out a new standard. The clout that COBOL once had has been diminished because we have allowed it to happen. The newest or the sexy technology it not thought of with COBOL, but I guess getting the math right or having maintainable code is not as interesting and having an animated graphic. So what on soapbox do we desire stand. I suppose the best platform on which to stand is perhaps where the COBOL community has always stood. Getting the math right, being maintainable by people defining business processes and working along side other programming languages. It is okay to be understood! |
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Background There is a thought within the COBOL community that COBOL must be defended from perceived hostility from the News media. We might call to question why this is necessary and what is expected result. |