Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!snorkelwacker!spdcc!esegue!johnl From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: The Fundamental Concept of Programming language X Message-ID: <1990Jan2.042552.248@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us> Date: 2 Jan 90 04:25:52 GMT References: <1868@naucse.UUCP> <15050@bfmny0.UU.NET> Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine) Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA Lines: 16 In article <15050@bfmny0.UU.NET> tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) writes: > RPG syntax by indentation :-) Actually, it's syntax by card column, but RPG does what it does, which is to produce straightforward reports from fixed form input, as well as anything else. (Later versions added all sorts of junk for indexed files and complicated calculations on the way from input to output, but any language gets baroque in its later days. Just look at Fortran 8X.) Personally I prefer awk, which is very much the Unix equivalent of RPG, but for keeping inventory records on a 4K byte machine, you could have done far worse. -- John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650 johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl "Now, we are all jelly doughnuts."