| William M. Klein 2005-08-13, 3:59 am |
| As a follow-up to another thread, ...
If one is licensed for z/OS (or now out-of-service OS/390 - later releases),
then one AUTOMATICALLY (no additional cost) has the RUN-TIME support for all
LE-conforming languages
COBOL
PL/I
C
C++
Fortran (sort-of)
LE-conforming Assembler
Assembler (but not the "extended toolkit") come "free" with the Operating
System. (At one time C did also, but I don't think that is true now - and I may
even be mistaken about that for the past. Certainly JCL - if you call that a
language - comes free - and I think - again, I could be mistaken - that REXX
comes with the system)
Various compilers DO cost additional, but only need to be licensed for where one
does "development".
***
If one has .NET (usually Windows, but there IS a Linux version - as I recall -
and there is now an international "standard" for CLI which is BASICALLY .NET),
then one has the required run-time for "managed" (but not unmanaged - I think,
but am uncertain) code. Certainly this includes C and C# - but there are now
two COBOL compilers (that I know of) for .NET, i.e. Fujitsu and Micro Focus
(there may be more). I do *NOT* know their run-time licensing requirements for
various .NET environments. (I think Fujitsu's is free, but I think- not
certain - that Micro Focus still has a run-time license fee - even for under
..NET).
***
It is NOT my (personal) perception that the cost of run-time licenses and
restrictions on distribution (including various client-server approaches)
determines which language is used for a specific environment. NEITHER do I
(personally) think that the cost of the compiler for "development" is the MAJOR
factor.
Personally, I think that it is the PERCEPTION and cost of developers (and
availability of developers for that platform, environment, and language *AND*
the management awareness of this - that is the biggest contributor to language
and tool and operating system selection). Therefore, I agree with those who
think that COBOL is not LIKELY to be a "major" player in any Linux (or Windows
or Unix) environment. However, I also see significant code being PORTED to
those environments and NEW DEVELOPMENT to interact with existing COBOL
applications will continue to be done in and for them.
All of this is only my "best guess" and I am more than willing to accept that I
may be proved wrong (in 10 years, 20 years, or whenever) - just as those who
said that "COBOL was DEAD" several decades ago.
--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
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