Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Keith Thompson Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: COBOL, Article on new mainframe use Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 14:26:21 -0700 Organization: None to speak of Lines: 25 Message-ID: <8734mpejya.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> References: <20240823112029.00002202@yahoo.com> <20240823115440.0000782b@yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 23:26:22 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="90d986288334bd92d1400f11de39bcef"; logging-data="3296451"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19L085eXzB/pMzyVjS/DZds" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Cancel-Lock: sha1:yjw9A7CN1ZkXjb8V1KMXzuacPq4= sha1:/CeeZW+gRdwJ6MkthlPxf8G7Jg4= Bytes: 1843 John Levine writes: [...] > COBOL is by design, really really verbose, e.g. what we would write as > > tg = kb + ro > > is > > ADD KICK-BACK TO RAKE-OFF GIVING TOTAL-GRAFT. [...] Or: COMPUTE TOTAL-GRAPH = KICK-BACK + RAKE-OFF or even: COMPUTE TG = KB + RO The use of verbose names like KICK-BACK rather than overly abbreviated names like kb is not a feature of the language, though it may be more idiomatic in Cobol than in most other languages. I wouldn't use "tg", "kb", and "ro" in any language unless they were well known abbreviations in the problem domain (or very localized). -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */