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From: The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2024 07:27:39 +0100
Organization: A little, after lunch
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On 29/09/2024 05:26, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> On 2024-09-28, Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2024-09-27, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Thu, 26 Sep 2024 17:52:04 -0700, Peter Flass wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Another thing PL/I got from COBOL is “natural” string handling. Assign a
>>>>> short string to a larger any the result is automatically blank-padded.
>>>>
>>>> That kind of misfeature is only needed in the sad world of non-dynamic,
>>>> fixed-length strings ...
>>>
>>> Which for many of us was the only world that existed at the time.
>>
>> I think still does. You wouldn’t want to print too long a name on a check,
>> for instance, just because your system allows it and some literal clerk
>> just types in what they see.
> 
> At a PPOE, my job title was "Programmer-Analyst".  When squashed into
> the 15-character field allocated for it in our payroll system, it became
> PROGRAMMER-ANAL.
> 
> I always felt this was appropriate.
> 
We always called them ANAL PROGS

-- 
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will 
eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such 
time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic 
and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally 
important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for 
the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the 
truth is the greatest enemy of the State.

Joseph Goebbels