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From: Jack Strangio  <jackstrangio@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: COBOL and tricks
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 10:56:10 -0000 (UTC)
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"25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> writes:
> 
>    Heh heh .... yea, we all get sick of writing out
>    long "descriptive names" and "self documenting"
>    code. Something about it just grates on the soul,
>    impedes the creative impulse.
> 
I was probably a bit different from most people in that I went from BASIC to
COBOL within a very short period of time back in the 1980s.

I still have some source files from that time.I have no idea what the BASIC
programs were doing and, more the point,  *how* they did it. When you get lines
like: 

    740 !#H9 TAB(10),C$,"  ",E$,A$,TAB(22),D$,A$,E$
    745 K7$=" "+D$+"M"+A$+E$\ WRITE#5,K7$\!">>>",K7$,"<"
    750 GOTO460
    760 READ#1%L,&X
    770 M5=(X+O+1)
    780 A=A7(M5)\B=B7(M5)
    790 A$=A7$(2*M5-1,2*M5)
    800 B$=B7$(10*M5-9,10*M5)
    810 B$=B$(1,(B8(M5)))
    820 RETURN

and then find COBOL lines like this:

    0352 NEW-ORDER.
    0353     DISPLAY SCREEN-CLEAR LINE-FEEDS LINE-FEEDS.
    0354            PERFORM TYPE-CUST.
    0355
    0356    MOVE "  *  ORDER  FROM   " TO PAPER-TYPE.
    0357    MOVE CUST-NAME TO ORGANISATION-D.
    0358    MOVE CUST-CODE TO WHO.
    0359    MOVE MONTH-S TO WHEN-MONTH.
    0360    MOVE YEAR-S TO WHEN-YEAR.
    0361    OPEN OUTPUT ORDER-FILE.
    0362    MOVE HEADER-TYPE TO HEADER-TYPE-D.
    0363    MOVE  " * O/No " TO FORM-TYPE.
    0364    PERFORM NEW-ORD-1.


it's easy to know which language's source-code I prefer to read after not
seeing them for years.


Jack


-- 
Why do meteorites always land in craters?