Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks?

meissner@osf.org
Tue, 28 Apr 1992 20:53:41 GMT

          From comp.compilers
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[3 earlier articles]
Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks? geoff@world.std.com (1992-04-22)
Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks? williams@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (1992-04-23)
Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks? jrbd@craycos.com (1992-04-23)
Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks? drw@nevanlinna.mit.edu (1992-04-24)
Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks? md@sco.COM (1992-04-27)
Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks? ejp@bohra.cpg.oz.au (1992-04-27)
Re: Why is Cobol ignored in compiler textbooks? meissner@osf.org (1992-04-28)
| List of all articles for this month |
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: meissner@osf.org
Keywords: Cobol
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 92-04-142
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1992 20:53:41 GMT

| ALTER is definitely still in COBOL-74. ...
| Actually I *think* that ALTER is even still in COBOL-85 although it is now
| obsolescent and will disappear completely from the next version of the
| standard.


Actually if memory servers, it was marked obsolecent in the COBOL-74
standard. All hell broke loose when the COBOL-80 committee tried to
remove it from the language. It took 5 years of threatened lawsuits
(against the members of the COBOL ANSI committee) before the COBOL
standard was finally approved (with ALTER still in as obsolescent).


As I understand it (ie, I wasn't there), the whole thing erupted because
some insurance company NO LONGER HAD THEIR SOURCE which used ALTER, and
were afraid that the IBM 1600 autocoder emulater would stop running their
programs.
--
Michael Meissner email: meissner@osf.org phone: 617-621-8861
Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142
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