links for 2008-02-22
February 22nd, 2008 2:32:48 am pst by Sterling Camden-
Cobol’s not going away any time soon, folks. I’m proud to say I’ve been Cobol-free for over 20 years, but if anybody out there needs some Cobol help, give me a call and I’ll be happy to deride you.
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Thicker, that is. Maybe we should start calling it the Creamy Way.
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“It’s sad that sometimes people don’t know that sometimes I can’t stop myself and they get mad at me.”
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Besides the obvious slapstick rescue for humor gone south
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It’s “libertarian” if instead of making it illegal, we just tax the hell out of it.
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An excellent confession. I must admit to having a few mouse traps in my closet as well, many of which are still being used!
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Zen and the art of free-lance scheduling
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Confession : in ’69/70 I even wrote a COBOL compiler.
The target machine had such a tiny memory (of three 6-bit byte words) that it took 19 passes
Ah, but writing the compiler has so much more geek status than using the language, especially when working with restricted hardware.
6-bit bytes? 3-byte words? What sort of machine was this?
It was a Telefunken TR86, 18 bit word minicomputer (think german PDP). Fast drum though. Derived from the TR84 (gun-controller) and used as a channel controller for the TR440 mainframe
Man-sized wooden cabinet, would you believe.
Telefunken wanted to enter the commercial market and so ‘needed’
a Cobol compiler. The PL/1 compiler (later) was 9 passes.
Table-driven lex- and syntax- passes on both.
Otherwise did the compiler in a Macro-assembler
Sounds like fun. I’ve worked on a few compilers/interpreters myself, but never in less than 64KB. I’m assuming you had less, given the number of passes required.