Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!kth!sunic!enea!mats
From: mats@enea.se (Mats Josefsson)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: COBOL and/or C in a large RDBMS env.
Keywords: COBOL C RDBMS
Message-ID: <18@helios.se>
Date: 4 Jun 89 16:30:12 GMT
Sender: mats@enea.se
Reply-To: mats@enea.SE (Mats Josefsson)
Organization: Enea Data AB, Sweden
Lines: 53


Hi,

I am working in a large DBMS project. It is an on-line transaction
system with very large amounts of data, several tens of Gigabytes.
The size of the development phase is estimated to be in the order
of 50 to 100 man years.  We're just starting up and have to make
some decisions about the development environment, specifically
on which 3GL(s) to use, C or C and COBOL.

It has already been decided to use Ingres RDBMS.

Most of the applications are going to be developed in OSL, Ingres'
4GL.  But my (and others) experience tells me that there will be a
need for at least one 3GL as well.  I can see two reasons for using
a 3GL, 1) some tasks are not at all possible to do in OSL, and
2) some tasks will be too slow in OSL.

Since this is a UNIX(tm) environment we think that C (maybe with ESQL)
is the language to use for tasks that isn't possible to do in OSL.

Examples of the other types of tasks are reports on and batch updating
of very large (sets of) tables in the database.  I know that it would
be possible to do this in C, but other people in the project say that
for this type of tasks COBOL is the preferred language.  Since I don't
know COBOL, I can't argue with this statement.

COBOL is said to have support for report writing and other types of
data handling. But isn't this equally well handled by well designed
C function libraries and/or preprocessors?  You may have to develop
the libraries yourself, but in a project this size it may be worth
the effort (or will it not?).

There are other factors to take into account as well.  Most of the
applications will be developed (programmed) by people not familiar
with UNIX and C, but with at least some COBOL experience. If they are
going to use C they will have to be educated.  And of course there is
the additional cost of supporting two 3GL's instead of one (I'm sure
COBOL can't replace C for systems programming).

I would like to get comments and advice from people who have experience
with development in a similar environment.  My question really is:

	"Should we use C for all non-OSL programming, or a
	 combination of C and COBOL?"

I don't want to start a (new) C vs. COBOL war.  I'm only interested in
their relative merits in this specific environment.

Thanks in advance,

Mats Josefsson, ENEA Data AB, Sweden
mats@enea.SE