Re: Question on Cobol (Unix) file layouts...

[Bob Larkin <blarkin@xxxxxx>]

Jon,
Hi. My name is Bob and I write COBOL. (ILE & /400)  (Isn't this the first of the
12 steps?)

Actually, I use both COBOL and RPG at various clients. I don't think any decent
RPGer would have a problem with COBOL if they had to use it. The AS/400 makes
some things simpler, with things such as Externally defined files, and Subfiles.
(Compared to many other platforms)

Now, the changes to the COBOL Run unit support to support ILE are a bit 
confusing
at first, but so was RPG.
FWIW
Bob


Jon.Paris@halinfo.it wrote:

>  >> His views on the brevity of COBOL vs. RPG _are_ a little weird,
> however. :-)
>
> Weird - me!  Now who would think that of me .......... (Bruce, Don - you
> can take that grin off your faces!!)
>
> What I meant was that I don't see that something like the following is any
> more long-winded in COBOL than in RPG.
>
> Here's the RPG IV:
>
>  D MyData          DS
>  D  FirstField                   10A
>  D  SecondField                   9S 2
>  D  AnArray                      10A   Dim(20)
>  D  LastField                          Like(SecondField)
>
> And here's the COBOL:
>
>  01  MyData.
>      05  FirstField    Pic X(10).
>      05  SecondField   Pic S9(7)V99.
>      05  AnArray       Pic X(10) Occurs 20.
>      05  LastField     Like SecondField.
>
> The only real extra typing in the COBOL is the PIC clause which I could
> abbreviate (and use REPLACE on) if I wished.  The point I was trying to
> make is that most people's view of COBOL as verbose is based on a very old
> version of COBOL (ANSI 68 or 74) that no-one uses.  In many cases I know
> well known RPG experts who when they had to code in COBOL found that it
> often took _less_ lines of code than RPG.  Of course their reputation would
> be shot to hell if they admitted that in public <vbg>
>
> Jon Paris
>
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