Path: csiph.com!1.us.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!border-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!buffer1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!buffer2.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.earthlink.com!news.earthlink.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2022 00:31:19 -0500 Subject: Re: COBOL and tricks Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc References: <871quvs7m8.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <87sfn8pr5t.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <87zghai2dh.fsf@usenet.ankman.de> <16ydncnktcv0sE__nZ2dnUU7-Q3NnZ2d@earthlink.com> <1034215367.679945065.348792.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <2074045549.679949818.212355.peter_flass-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.org> <2aadnYfne4Fc9Er_nZ2dnUU7-WnNnZ2d@earthlink.com> From: "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2022 01:31:18 -0400 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.13.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: Lines: 82 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 98.77.165.113 X-Trace: sv3-p2ZCNdB5DUFVuMaDqzzSlTBTQCotGVhtK9Z3UkaYZChlbhPgp5/vjXqx8RCf+mzrU0MOg29Po0fdSHU!uvbN2HjbKxfw5og56xkD9eS0JBAjEdRZcj/47TRWR0YMPBRJ+74DOwQKl0XcLXT+3Gt1DHdM8kfh!l3dUmsPkL225WXrXd4/+ X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 5701 Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:221303 comp.os.linux.misc:35184 On 7/23/22 7:50 PM, Allodoxaphobia wrote: > On Sat, 23 Jul 2022 19:32:03 -0000 (UTC), Lew Pitcher wrote: >> >> This development occurred in a large (1000+ branch) banking environment. >> When we got specs from the users, they were along the lines of >> you MULTIPLY the ACCOUNT BALANCE by the MONTHLY INTEREST RATE, >> giving the INTEREST ADJUSTMENT. >> you then ADD the INTEREST ADJUSTMENT to the ACCOUNT BALANCE, >> giving the ADJUSTED ACCOUNT BALANCE. >> which a programmer might convert into >> MULTIPLY ACCOUNT-BALANCE BY MONTHLY-INTEREST-RATE GIVING INTEREST-ADJUSTMENT. >> ADD INTEREST-ADJUSTMENT TO ACCOUNT-BALANCE GIVING ADJUSTED-ACCOUNT-BALANCE. >> >> The convenience was that the user's description /was/ the program code. > > Good luck finding white collar droids > now-a-days that can write that clearly! > > Ya, a couple hundred years ago I was a programmer in a corporate-captive > service company that did the data processing for 25 or so branch banks. > Did PL/1 and assembler -- mostly on the systems side versus applications. > The specs that came down for projects was always well defined and detailed. Ah ... PL/I ... one of the great "and the kitchen sink too" languages. Not awful - usually several ways to accomplish the same thing ... ie "flexibility". A bit odd though, like a mutant hybrid of Algol and BASIC > I don't think that's the case these days. NOT - for sure. Now it's more "Dilbert" and the bosses don't know dick and the project initiators mostly like to APPEAR to know stuff. HOWEVER ... "fuzzy" specs CAN lead to significant innovation. Too-tight specs lead to tight, but oft unimaginative, solutions. The old white-shirt/ narrow-tie crowd DID have a very useful place (and I wish we still had a few more of them), but so do the addled hacks with little guidance. I like programming to be FUN - never "just a JOB" like some assembly line - and have always found places where that can be realized. Smaller outfits, less pay, but WORTH it and always interesting. I've got one boss now who thinks that anything with "Microsoft" on the label is the greatest most wonderful thing EVER, mostly because some other outfits are all-MS shops and that's "biz- standard", beyond critique. I know better. I'll keep that a secret until I hand in my retirement notice. Besides, they'd have to throw out the printers, monitors, routers, hubs, iPads/Phones and NASs, Google and pretty much everything to avoid Unix/Linux products. Scuttlebutt is that Win-12 will be just like OS-X ... a Winders-looking face on top of a Unix core because "real Winders" has just become such an unmanagable/un-securable MESS - dead end. If you don't know Unix/Linux then you can't be an I.T. pro because it's EVERYWHERE, in EVERYTHING. And when they call about an EMERGENCY - they'll just get the "Gone Fishin'" message ........ :-) Charlie Gibbs signs off with : /~\ Charlie Gibbs | Microsoft is a dictatorship. \ / | Apple is a cult. X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | Linux is anarchy. / \ if you read it the right way. | Pick your poison. If it's REALLY IMPORTANT - I'd suggest Free/Open-BSD Unix instead. If it's BIG too - IBM z-OS. After decades of real-world experiences, "-IX/UX" has proven itself superior. Though such a pity VMS died out ... still have the 3-1/2 inch thick small-print manual ......... :-)