Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!princeton!phoenix!pucc!EGNILGES
From: EGNILGES@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Theory vs. Practice
Message-ID: <4921@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 11 Apr 88 19:25:12 GMT
References: <38797UH2@PSUVM> <3415@bunker.UUCP> <3326@zeus.TEK.COM> <461@vsi.UUCP> <5775@bunny.UUCP> <2218@ttidc <65@qucis.UUCP>
Reply-To: EGNILGES@pucc.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 14
Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article


In article <38797UH2@PSUVM>, UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) writes:
 
>Often, an employer doesn't want someone who can think, apply principles
>in novel ways, and be creative, as in "We have these 200 COBOL programs,
>and they all use the depreciation tables in the IRS rulebook, and the
>IRS just changed the rules.  Get in there and change the programs to
>match the new rules..."
 
The really sad thing is that you CAN be creative in Cobol.  You can
write a Cobol program, a TSO CLIST, or VM exec to change the code
exactly (and even put in an exact comment as to date, time, and
whodunit of change).  But this sort of thing will get you in trouble
in the average Cobol installation.  See Phillip Kraft's excellent
study, "Programmers and Managers" (Springer/Verlag 1977).