[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[open-cobol-list] Fwd: Re: Identification Division still needed!
From: |
J Martin Rushton |
Subject: |
[open-cobol-list] Fwd: Re: Identification Division still needed! |
Date: |
Fri, 06 Feb 2015 20:15:33 +0000 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.2.0 |
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Absolutely agree about internal documentation. The
only thing I would disagree with is that ALL languages
need internal documentation, whether it be PL/1, FORTAN
BLISS, VAX-macro, BASH (etc), Python or even SQL. You'd
have got a flea in the ear from my lecturers way back in
the '70s (when disk storage was expensive) if you didn't
document internally and adequately.
On 06/02/15 15:10, John Culleton wrote:
> START RANT.
>
> One of the biggest mistakes made by CODASYL and its successors is
> the gradual annihilation of the Identification Division. In 2015
> as in 1959 programmers love to program and hate to document. The
> standard paragraphs in the ID regularize and encourage internal
> documentation. The most useful paragraph was 'REMARKS' which was
> the first to go. I always judged a programs quality starting with
> the Remarks paragraph. Today, lacking an official paragraph wise
> programmers create what amounts to a Remarks paragraph and
> highlight it by surrounding it on fours sides with asterisks.
> Frankly that is a lot more work then just including the standard
> paragraph names in the personal template.
>
> The superb manual by Gary Cutler discourages their use, even if
> they are included in GNU Cobol for compatibility with older
> programs.
>
> I would instead encourage their use. I use each paragraph for what
> it name says. I use the Security paragraph for my copyright
> statement.
>
> The mavens who create the Cobol standard made and keep making a
> serious mistake. We don't need to follow their folly. GMH was
> right and she is still right. External documentation in a ring
> binder gets lost when management changes or the office moves.
> Internal documentation is there forever. This is one of the things
> that make Cobol self-documenting and hence raises it above all
> other programming languages.
>
> If a program is moved to a less englightened Cobol environment it
> is little work to add some asterisks. they can even be added in
> advance.
>
> END RANT.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux)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=rfnZ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
[Prev in Thread] |
Current Thread |
[Next in Thread] |
- [open-cobol-list] Fwd: Re: Identification Division still needed!,
J Martin Rushton <=