Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.object Subject: Re: Syntax Change Not Paradigm Shift Message-ID: Date: 17 Apr 91 03:10:54 GMT References: <47.UUL1.3#913@acw.com> Sender: news@Rational.COM Lines: 29 >In the commercial realm where real computing is done and where the vast >majority of both the cycles and the dollars of computing are found, one >doesn't find this mindless pursuit of endless transliteration. COBOL is >sufficient and has been for years. There is, you see, a real job to get >done. Indeed there is. And it's name is "maintenance". 70% of the effort devoted to software in this country is devoted to maintenance. 70% of the software in this country is written in COBOL. Thus, roughly HALF of all intellectual capital expended on software in this country is pissed down a rathole maintaining creaky old COBOL applications. From a business standpoint, this is unjustifiable. New languages and tools DO make a difference. >But we did give ample warning, didn't we? Always, always beware of a field of >endeavor that feels it must put "science" in its name: political science, >social science, computer science. Indeed: "computer science" does have a sort of as-translated-from- the-Ukranian feel to it, akin to "performance art". That's why I'm a software engineer. -- * The opinions expressed herein are my own, except in the realm of software * * engineering, in which case I borrowed them from incredibly smart people. * * * * Rational: cutting-edge software engineering technology and services. *