languages that are involved in some sort of data analysis and processing (#sql, #clang /c++) are doing very well. Not sure what to make of #Python; are ppl in #AI seeing through the reality is a scripting over extremely performant c/c++ and that there are other lang that can glue as well? #golang & #Julia are ⬆️
I'm working on removing an important spreadsheet from Google Docs, and maintain that in LibreOffice.
Thing: In G Docs I wrote a few macros to sort the file in various ways, using 4 and 5 fields.
Libre Calc only allows 3 sort fields, and the G-Doc macros don't work in Libre Calc.
I've written a #Python program to convert a CSV to a file with fixed length, and writing a #COBOL program to do the sorting for me.
Sorting multiple columns in Python is a PITA. In COBOL it's laughably simple.
I wish something like the IBM S/34 #GSORT would exist for Linux. That would make this even simpler.
LOL using AI to convert an ancient language #COBOL into a questionable one #Java (having been a professional Java programmer in my lifetime... not my favorite language. Unless you like to chase infinite memory leaks and apps which keep on getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger until they use all the memory available on your system.) https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/22/ibm-taps-ai-to-translate-cobol-code-to-java/
A weird thing about being 50 is that there are programming languages that I've used regularly for longer than some of the software developers I work with have been alive. I first wrote BASIC code in the 1980s. The first time I wrote an expression evaluator--a fairly standard programming puzzle or homework--was in 1990. I wrote it in Pascal for an undergraduate homework assignment. I first wrote perl in the early 1990s, when it was still perl 4.036 (5.38.2 now). I first wrote java in 1995-ish, when it was still java 1.0 (1.21 now). I first wrote scala, which I still use for most things today, in 2013-ish, when it was still scala 2.8 (3.4.0 now). At various times I've been "fluent" in 8086 assembly, BASIC, C, Pascal, perl, python, java, scala; and passable in LISP/Scheme, Prolog, old school Mathematica, (early days) Objective C, matlab/octave, and R. I've written a few lines of Fortran and more than a few lines of COBOL that I ran in a production system once. I could probably write a bit of Haskell if pressed but for some reason I really dislike its syntax so I've never been enthusiastic about learning it well. I've experimented with Clean, Flix, Curry, Unison, Factor, and Joy and learned bits and pieces of each of those. I'm trying to decide whether I should try learning Idris, Agda, and/or Lean. I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting a few languages. Bit of 6502 assembly long ago. Bit of Unix/Linux shell scripting languages (old enough to have lived and breathed tcsh before switching to bash; I use fish now mostly).
When I say passable: in graduate school I wrote a Prolog interpreter in java (including parsing source code or REPL input), within which I could run the classic examples like append or (very simple) symbolic differentiation/integration. As an undergraduate I wrote a Mathematica program to solve the word recognition problem for context-free formal languages. But I'd need some study time to be able to write these languages again.
I don't know what the hell prompted me to reminisce about programming languages. I hope it doesn't come off as a humblebrag but rather like old guy spinning yarns. I think I've been through so many because I'm never quite happy with any one of them and because I've had a varied career that started when I was pretty young.
I guess I'm also half hoping to find people on here who have similar interests so I'm going to riddle this post with hashtags:
I guess it makes sense. I'm sure it's hard to find somebody who is good at #cobol. I don't think that they are going to get the result they are after, based on LLMs like ChatGPT, though.
I found the following gem from 1972 while doing research for the article:
(Oh, yes, I WROTE A POST that I'm half-proud of! Was BASIC really THAT BAD? Why did Dijkstra say it crippled the mind?
Let's find out the broader context of the famous quote! Please share and comment if you like the post :))
The World Depends on 60-Year-Old Code No One Knows Anymore
Every day, 3 trillion dollars worth of transactions are handled by a 64-year-old programming language hardly anybody knows anymore.
It's called COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language), and despite the fact most schools and universities stopped teaching it decades ago, it remains one of the top #mainframe programming languages used today
This time we learn more about his life/history, hear all about the boot camps he runs, discuss recent advancements in AI / quantum computing and how they might affect the tech labor market & more!
⌛ 20 Years in the Making, GnuCOBOL Is Ready for Industry | thenewstack.io
「 GnuCOBOL turns COBOL source code into executable applications. It is very cross-platform, running Linux, BSD, many proprietary Unixes, macOS, and Windows, even Android. And the latest version, v.32, is being used in many commercial settings 」
"So we have two legacy languages in the TIOBE Top 20 for rather different reasons - COBOL skills are still needed to sustain vital legacy (or should that be out-dated) systems. Fortran, on the other hand, has a role to play at the cutting edge of scientific research and can be expected to have an expanding role in its "Modern" incarnation."