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| Author |
Basic structure COBOL
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| jogtushar@gmail.com 2007-05-29, 3:55 am |
| Hi.. Can somebody tell me the basic structure of the the COBOL
language.. since i need that for presentation.
thanx in advance... Tushar
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| donald tees 2007-05-29, 3:55 am |
| jogtushar@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi.. Can somebody tell me the basic structure of the the COBOL
> language.. since i need that for presentation.
>
> thanx in advance... Tushar
>
Words and names are constructed into sentences, organized into paragraphs.
Lots of good books about. I'd suggest reading one, maybe, for bonus
marks, even two.
Donald
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| Pete Dashwood 2007-05-29, 3:55 am |
|
<jogtushar@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1180411515.956717.64220@p47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...
> Hi.. Can somebody tell me the basic structure of the the COBOL
> language.. since i need that for presentation.
>
> thanx in advance... Tushar
>
Basic structure eh?.... Hmmm ... for presentation....
COBOL is constructed by stringing together characters in the ASCII or EBCDIC
character set.
There are rules about WHICH characters are allowed, how they can be
combined, and whereabouts they can go. There are also rules about the order
in which they must appear together; for example, the string 'MEOV' could be
acceptable in some places in the program, but would need re-arranging into
'MOVE' in other places in the program.
Failure to obey the rules can result in bad construction, and bad
construction may cause the program to fail and/or other programmers to rain
down curses and abomination upon your name.
On the whole, COBOL is a highly complex and powerful commercial language
that is best left to people with at least some basic computer skills (like,
how to use a search engine...)
HTH,
Pete.
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| In article <1180411515.956717.64220@p47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com>,
<jogtushar@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi.. Can somebody tell me the basic structure of the the COBOL
>language.. since i need that for presentation.
The basic structure of COBOL is that it isEnglish-like, or so some have
said.
The appropriateness of other details might depends on your situation.
What are you presenting, and to whom?
DD
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| HeyBub 2007-05-29, 7:55 am |
| jogtushar@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi.. Can somebody tell me the basic structure of the the COBOL
> language.. since i need that for presentation.
>
> thanx in advance... Tushar
Sure. The basic structure is:
Get
Mull
Put
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| donald tees 2007-05-29, 7:55 am |
| HeyBub wrote:
> jogtushar@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Sure. The basic structure is:
>
> Get
> Mull
> Put
>
>
I like that. Add a dictionary, and you have an entire language.
Donald
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| Robin Lee 2007-05-29, 9:55 pm |
| HeyBub wrote:
>
> Get
> Mull
> Put
Actually I think that's PL1.
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| Pete Dashwood 2007-05-29, 9:55 pm |
|
"Robin Lee" <robinlee@news.com> wrote in message
news:XaCdnd91JbmVO8HbnZ2dnUVZ_judnZ2d@gi
ganews.com...
> HeyBub wrote:
>
> Actually I think that's PL1.
>
>
LOL! Nice one, Robin... :-)
It almost is...
Pete.
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| Pete Dashwood 2007-05-29, 9:55 pm |
|
"HeyBub" <heybubNOSPAM@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:135o6h983nopo85@news.supernews.com...
> jogtushar@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Sure. The basic structure is:
>
> Get
> Mull
> Put
>
Whoa! That's so profound it could take a year to consider it.
Really like that, Jerry.
Pete.
| |
|
| Pete Dashwood wrote:
> "Robin Lee" <robinlee@news.com> wrote in message
> news:XaCdnd91JbmVO8HbnZ2dnUVZ_judnZ2d@gi
ganews.com...
>
> LOL! Nice one, Robin... :-)
>
> It almost is...
Of course, it is PL/I [not PL1], but in a thread like this, I guess
close counts... [No comment on the rest.]
Carl
| |
| HeyBub 2007-05-29, 9:55 pm |
| donald tees wrote:
> HeyBub wrote:
> I like that. Add a dictionary, and you have an entire language.
>
Great. Take perfectly good code and add "features." Next thing you know,
you'll have Vista.
| |
| Pete Dashwood 2007-05-29, 9:55 pm |
|
"CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@MCGCG.Com> wrote in message
news:d0070$465cc8b1$d06620ed$2489@FUSE.NET...
> Pete Dashwood wrote:
>
> Of course, it is PL/I [not PL1], but in a thread like this, I guess close
> counts... [No comment on the rest.]
> Carl
Why would you correct him on the name of the language, Carl?
It was originally PL/I as you state. IBM believed everyone would move to it
so, "Program Language/ International"
When this dream failed to eventuate, they renamed it as their first attempt,
and later manuals showed "PL/1".
(I have seen IBM manuals with each of these names on the cover, depending on
when they were published.)
We have never seen, and are now unlikely to, PL/2.
Pete.
| |
|
| Pete Dashwood wrote:
> "CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@MCGCG.Com> wrote in message
> news:d0070$465cc8b1$d06620ed$2489@FUSE.NET...
>
> Why would you correct him on the name of the language, Carl?
>
> It was originally PL/I as you state. IBM believed everyone would move to it
> so, "Program Language/ International"
>
> When this dream failed to eventuate, they renamed it as their first attempt,
> and later manuals showed "PL/1".
>
> (I have seen IBM manuals with each of these names on the cover, depending on
> when they were published.)
>
> We have never seen, and are now unlikely to, PL/2.
Why? Well, I guess, since the rest of the thread was certainly not
going to provide a serious response to the original question, the
quality of the thread was not going to be harmed by the comment. And,
if someone is going to criticize something, they should at least improve
their credibility by demonstrating that they know the correct name of
the product. I react the same way when I see 'Cobol' instead of 'COBOL'
in print.
I doubt you have ever seen an 'official' IBM publication that used PL/1
or PL1 or PLI. IBM is very careful about things like that, but humans
being what they are, and because IBM does not have a lawyer review every
writing from its employees, there are cases where errors slip through.
When I have an opportunity, I often suggest to those individuals that
they should correct their text.
And, FWIW, the 'I' was never for 'International' but simply a Roman
Numeral 'I'. And, to be completely factual, the 'original' name of the
language was not PL/I [Programming Language/One], but was 'New
Programming Language' and referred to as 'NPL' in some cases. That
acronym was the subject of a loud objection by the UK National
Measurement Laboratory, so IBM changed the name.
DL/I was another product, similarly named that was often referred to
incorrectly. While I do not know for sure, I believe that the reason
DB2 was named as it is, was due to the confusions with DL/I and PL/I.
Thus DB2 was picked rather than DB/II or DB/2.
But, I guess you'll not accept DB2 as a viable database until there is a
DB3...
| |
| Pete Dashwood 2007-05-30, 9:55 pm |
|
"CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@MCGCG.Com> wrote in message
news:e0844$465da0fc$d06620ed$19718@FUSE.NET...
> Pete Dashwood wrote:
>
> Why? Well, I guess, since the rest of the thread was certainly not going
> to provide a serious response to the original question, the quality of the
> thread was not going to be harmed by the comment. And, if someone is
> going to criticize something, they should at least improve their
> credibility by demonstrating that they know the correct name of the
> product. I react the same way when I see 'Cobol' instead of 'COBOL' in
> print.
>
> I doubt you have ever seen an 'official' IBM publication that used PL/1 or
> PL1 or PLI.
Well there was one with a green cover and one with a red cover; they both
had a blue IBM logo on them...
However, it WAS a long time ago and I don't feel strongly enough about it to
insist... :-)
>IBM is very careful about things like that, but humans being what they are,
>and because IBM does not have a lawyer review every writing from its
>employees, there are cases where errors slip through. When I have an
>opportunity, I often suggest to those individuals that they should correct
>their text.
>
> And, FWIW, the 'I' was never for 'International' but simply a Roman
> Numeral 'I'.
Yes, I know that is the official IBM position and I have heard this from
several IBM managers.
Obviously we have experienced history from different perspectives. :-) It
was while I was working for IBM at Hursley Park that I was told this story,
by someone who claimed to have been on the development team. Who knows? It
sounded plausible and I believed him.
>And, to be completely factual, the 'original' name of the language was not
>PL/I [Programming Language/One], but was 'New Programming Language' and
>referred to as 'NPL' in some cases.
Yes he mentioned that as well.
>That acronym was the subject of a loud objection by the UK National
>Measurement Laboratory, so IBM changed the name.
>
I didn't know about that :-)
> DL/I was another product, similarly named that was often referred to
> incorrectly. While I do not know for sure, I believe that the reason DB2
> was named as it is, was due to the confusions with DL/I and PL/I. Thus DB2
> was picked rather than DB/II or DB/2.
>
> But, I guess you'll not accept DB2 as a viable database until there is a
> DB3...
>
Not at all. I've been using DB2 since it became available in the UK in 1983.
(At that ime I was still working on mainframes). I took a lot of stick in
this forum for encouraging others to use it. (What?! All that overhead when
I can use ISAM/VSAM?!) Today it is a perfectly good RDB implementation.
(Mind you, I don't know of any "bad" ones :-)) These days I use MySQL,
ACCESS and SQL Server, but I have never forgotten that my first learning
experience with RDB was DB2.
Pete.
| |
|
| CG wrote:
> Why? Well, I guess, since the rest of the thread was certainly not
> going to provide a serious response to the original question,
Google can do a much more thorough job answering the original question
than the participants of this newsgroup, and do it in a much more timely
fashion. It's actually a *good* response to suggest putting that
question into Google (or Ask.com, or someplace like that). Sounds
tough, but it's helpful if taken to heart.
--
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a man who's offended by a God he doesn't believe in?" - Brad Stine
| |
|
| Pete Dashwood wrote:
> "CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@MCGCG.Com> wrote in message
> news:e0844$465da0fc$d06620ed$19718@FUSE.NET...
>
> Well there was one with a green cover and one with a red cover; they both
> had a blue IBM logo on them...
Green covers were, if I recall correctly, normally "Student Text"
documents. Theoretically, they should have gone through the same edits,
but that was often done by instructors or others not in the development
groups. Regular SRLs were created by pub groups within the development
organization.
"Red Books" are more recent and usually written by field people versus
those from formal development organizations. Sometimes, there are also
users on the Red Book teams. While they go through an 'edit' process,
the person doing the editing is usually doing more of a grammatical edit
than a technical edit. The editor _should_ catch that kind of thing,
but I don't think they go through the kinds of text scanning looking for
'style points' like regular SRL manuals.
> However, it WAS a long time ago and I don't feel strongly enough about it to
> insist... :-)
>
>
>
> Yes, I know that is the official IBM position and I have heard this from
> several IBM managers.
>
> Obviously we have experienced history from different perspectives. :-) It
> was while I was working for IBM at Hursley Park that I was told this story,
> by someone who claimed to have been on the development team. Who knows? It
> sounded plausible and I believed him.
I was on the IBM Pre-Announce Team for S/360. And, I struggled through
a number of the V1.0 beta releases of the PL/I(F) Compiler that just
happened to appear on my desk. [Does 'DTR' ring a bell with you?]
Somewhere in the basement, I may even have one of the early manuals that
said "New Programming Language" on the cover.
Since Hursley was where the original development of PL/I was done, it is
likely that you ran into some of the old PL/I group. But, the PL/I
mission was moved to Palo Alto and then to the Santa Teresa Lab. To
keep the Hursley group busy, they got CICS and [parts of] TCAM.
Carl
| |
| Pete Dashwood 2007-05-31, 6:55 pm |
|
"CG" <Carl.Gehr.ButNoSPAMStuff@MCGCG.Com> wrote in message
news:1a9af$465e2965$d06620ed$7326@FUSE.NET...
> Pete Dashwood wrote:
>
> Green covers were, if I recall correctly, normally "Student Text"
> documents. Theoretically, they should have gone through the same edits,
> but that was often done by instructors or others not in the development
> groups. Regular SRLs were created by pub groups within the development
> organization.
>
> "Red Books" are more recent and usually written by field people versus
> those from formal development organizations. Sometimes, there are also
> users on the Red Book teams. While they go through an 'edit' process, the
> person doing the editing is usually doing more of a grammatical edit than
> a technical edit. The editor _should_ catch that kind of thing, but I
> don't think they go through the kinds of text scanning looking for 'style
> points' like regular SRL manuals.
>
>
> I was on the IBM Pre-Announce Team for S/360. And, I struggled through a
> number of the V1.0 beta releases of the PL/I(F) Compiler that just
> happened to appear on my desk. [Does 'DTR' ring a bell with you?]
> Somewhere in the basement, I may even have one of the early manuals that
> said "New Programming Language" on the cover.
>
> Since Hursley was where the original development of PL/I was done, it is
> likely that you ran into some of the old PL/I group. But, the PL/I
> mission was moved to Palo Alto and then to the Santa Teresa Lab. To keep
> the Hursley group busy, they got CICS and [parts of] TCAM.
>
> Carl
Thanks for the additional information, Carl. I knew about CICS at Hursley,
but not PL/I. I think what you are suggesting is very likely.
I worked at both North Harbour and Hursley and was a founder member of the
"IBM Software House" (which was mainly supporting the Huon solution), and
was also a driving force behind getting MicroFocus COBOL into use there,
until it was rebadged as Visual Age :-) Because I had some langiuage skills
I was sent to do trouble shooting with a couple of major IBM clients (who I
won't name publicly, but a bank and an insurance company, if you catch my
drift... :-)) in Germany, and that was the bit I enjoyed most during my time
there.
A different lifetime... now back to C# :-)...
Pete.
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