Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!cadre!pitt!cisunx!wpnst
From: wpnst@cisunx.UUCP (Bill 'Deus' Nixon)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The GNU Manifesto
Message-ID: <6472@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jan 88 20:34:40 GMT
References: <9591@tekecs.TEK.COM> <328@splut.UUCP> <3144@briar.Philips.Com> <610@gethen.UUCP> <1298@gumby.cs.wisc.edu> <2576@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: wpnst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.edu.UUCP (Bill 'Deus' Nixon)
Organization: University of Pgh, Zets
Lines: 26

In article <2576@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> langz@athena.mit.edu (Lang Zerner) writes:
>
>What's more, COBOL is without doubt the best language available for writing
>mainframe business applications.  Just look around you.  There are more
>mainframe business applications written in COBOL than in perhaps any other high
>level language.  And more mainframe software maintenance engineers use COBOL
>than any other HLL.
>

COBOL is the best ?  I won't say anything about that.  Could start yet
another holy war.

The only reason that COBOL is so widely used is that 70% of all business
programs are written in it.  Why ?  Cause COBOL was the best HLL around
at the time avaiable to alot of people and computers.  

The software maintenace engineers are just saving money working in COBOL
on COBOL programs.  Why spend the time and money to convert a working
program to another language to add a few new features ?


-- 
Bill 'Deus' Nixon  		One of the Univ. Of Pgh  ZETS !
mail :	wpnst@pittvms.BITNET
	wpnst@unix.cis.pittsburgh.EDU
	{allegra, cadre, psuvax1}!pitt!cisunx!wpnst