# Speaking of COBOL **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [October 14, 2006, 5:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100 "2006-10-14T05:19:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 5:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/1 "2006-10-14T05:19:08Z")
Interesting article on the future of COBOL … perhaps a COBOL to Ruby translator would ease some pain? > **[IT news, careers, business technology, reviews](https://www.computerworld.com/)** > > Computerworld covers a range of technology topics, with a focus on these core areas of IT: Windows, Mobile, Apple/enterprise, Office and productivity suites, collaboration, web browsers and blockchain, as well as relevant information about companies... ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/2 "2006-10-14T15:12:22Z")
My guess is that the need to use COBOL has to do with the present investment these companies have in systems already. I highly doubt that organizations that are newish are using it (or if they are it’s minor in comparison to older orgs). Now, I do think that a translator would be super cool though. Andy ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/3 "2006-10-14T17:57:51Z")
Andrew L. wrote: > M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote: > > > Interesting article on the future of COBOL … perhaps a COBOL to Ruby > > translator would ease some pain? > > > > [http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=266228](http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=266228) A COBOL refactoring IDE written in Ruby! Sounds to me like meta-programming at its finest. At one point long ago, I thought it would be a good idea to learn COBOL, but I gave up on it and stayed with FORTRAN and assembler. Then all kinds of interesting things happened, like character sets including lower case, the Cuban Missile Crisis, System\360, and the Vietnam War. Maybe now is a good time to take up COBOL again. 🙂 Could you say COBOL is a domain-specific language for maintaining COBOL legacy code? ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/4 "2006-10-14T19:12:27Z")
On Sun, 15 Oct 2006, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote: > A COBOL refactoring IDE written in Ruby! Sounds to me like > meta-programming at its finest. At one point long ago, I thought it > would be a good idea to learn COBOL, but I gave up on it and stayed with > FORTRAN and assembler. Then all kinds of interesting things happened, > like character sets including lower case, the Cuban Missile Crisis, > System\360, and the Vietnam War. Maybe now is a good time to take up > COBOL again. 🙂 > > Could you say COBOL is a domain-specific language for maintaining COBOL > legacy code? Don’t dismiss all of the ideas in COBOL so quickly. For decades it has been the only mainstream language to do decimal arithmatic. It also has some excellent page formatting capabilities, also missing from mainstream languages. All of this can easily be done in Ruby, unlike many other languages. – Matt It’s not what I know that counts. It’s what I can remember in time to use. ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/5 "2006-10-14T19:58:35Z")
Matt L. wrote: > > Could you say COBOL is a domain-specific language for maintaining COBOL > > legacy code? > > Don’t dismiss all of the ideas in COBOL so quickly. For decades it has > been the only mainstream language to do decimal arithmatic. It also has > some excellent page formatting capabilities, also missing from > mainstream languages. > > All of this can easily be done in Ruby, unlike many other languages. Ah … so Ruby is not mainstream? Perhaps an ability to refactor legacy COBOL will make it mainstream in spades!! I always wondered why decimal arithmetic was built in to microprocessors from day one, while floating point was added only later. Now I know … more COBOL legacy code than FORTRAN legacy code. 🙂 Page formatting? Isn’t that built into Perl, which I think is “mainstream”? “Practical Extraction and _Reporting_ Language”, right? ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/6 "2006-10-14T21:14:45Z")
On Sun, 15 Oct 2006, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote: > Ah … so Ruby is not mainstream? Perhaps an ability to refactor legacy > COBOL will make it mainstream in spades!! Ruby is just starting to become mainstream. There are still a lot of computer people who haven’t even heard of it. > Page formatting? Isn’t that built into Perl, which I think is > “mainstream”? “Practical Extraction and _Reporting_ Language”, right? Page formatting in Perl is nowhere near as powerful and easy to use as what is provided in COBOL. I don’t know many perl programmers who use it regularly. – Matt It’s not what I know that counts. It’s what I can remember in time to use. ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/7 "2006-10-15T02:31:16Z")
Matt L. wrote: > Don’t dismiss all of the ideas in COBOL so quickly. For decades it has > been the only mainstream language to do decimal arithmatic. PL/I, RPG, and Ada from Ada 95 on. And they all avoided the horrible botch in COBOL’s precision handling that was not fixed until COBOL 2002 (and is still only optionally fixed). ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/8 "2006-10-15T02:31:15Z")
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote: > I always wondered why decimal arithmetic was built in to microprocessors > from day one, while floating point was added only later. Actually, no. Decimal arithmetic in microprocessors goes back to the original market that Intel invented microprocessors for in the first place – desk calculators. ---
**Author:** ![MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@MSEdward\_SEdS\_Bora](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/MSEdward_SEdS_Bora)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 3:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/speaking-of-cobol/72100/9 "2006-10-15T03:13:18Z")
On 10/14/06, John W. Kennedy [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Matt L. wrote: > > > Don’t dismiss all of the ideas in COBOL so quickly. For decades it has > > been the only mainstream language to do decimal arithmatic. > > PL/I, RPG, and Ada from Ada 95 on. Not to mention quite a few implementations of SQL. Certainly a mainstream language albeit not a full programming language. – Rick DeNatale My blog on Ruby [http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/](http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/)