Re: interesting use of NEXT SENTENCE vs. CONTINUE

In article <3gfukvFc4h3qU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Pete Dashwood <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
><docdwarf@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:d7s7o9$6ol$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> In article <1117874000.565517.100420@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>> Richard <riplin@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> >If I wish to call any particular construct an 'abuse' then I will do
>> >so, and I will not put up with censorship telling me that I cannot say
>> >that.
>>
>> From http://www.bartleby.com/66/25/10625.html :
>>
>> --begin quoted text:
>>
>> "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it
>> means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."
>>
>> --end quoted text
>
>>From memory... (might be slightly off; I stored it when I was a child...)
>
>"The question is", replied Alice, "whether you CAN use words that way."
>
>"The question is", said Humpty Dumpty, "who is to be the master, that is
>all."
>
>Richard has a perfect right to call something he considers 'abuse' ....
>'abuse'.

That depends, Mr Dashwood, on how one defines a 'right'.

>
>Bill has a perfect right to say, "No, it isn't."

See above.

>
>Both can present their arguments and the Doc has a perfect right to point
>out that it is purely a semantic argument.

Well... it *is* a discussion about language (English) being used to
describe language (COBOL).

>
>I have a perfect right to comment on the whole process.

Above again.

>
>And you, gentle reader, have a perfect right to ignore the whole tedious
>thread. Or not...

Looky yonder, up there!

>
>My advice: Don't use NEXT SENTENCE.... ever.

I've heard that said about SEARCH, internal SORTs, GO TO and PERFORM THRU;
such advices have been labelled here, previously, as the basis of
'religious wars'.

>It is a stupid and unnecessary
>inclusion in the COBOL language.

.... and beloved by poopie-heads? It is a construct which transfers
control of execution to code following the next full stop/period (barring
paragraph intervention), nothing more, nothing less.

>It is NEVER required, UNLESS you (or your
>installation) forbids the use of negated conditions.

Ahhhhh... 'required'? Now *there's* a curious word. As mentioned before,
I've worked in shops where SEARCH was forbidden... and we worked around
it. Likewise with internal SORTs, also forbidden, also worked around. I
recall being regaled by a greyhead with Tales of the Oldene Dayse, when
they put together a system for airline reservations using only RR
(register-to-register) instructions because they were the fastest... and
they worked around the other ones.

It has been said that tools are devoid of values and intelligence; it is
the uses to which they are put which can be labelled 'decent' or
'stupid'... a hammer can be used to build or destroy. Language constructs
may be seen in a similar fashion.

>
>If you are a poor unfortunate who works on a site where they force you to
>work with blunt tools in this way (usually because the Management can't get
>their heads around Boolean Algebra), look for another job...

I recall, Mr Dashwood, different Oldene Dayse when computer speed was
*very* costly; NEXT SENTENCE and GO TO -EXIT were beloved of those who
wanted to save CPU-cycles. Some readers might be so young as to consider
these days nearly as recent as those of the horse-and-buggy... but others
will sigh and say 'Ahhhhh, yes... those were the Oldene Dayse, when a
coder could code code such as *ten* coders could not, today!'

Now I am not saying that machine time is of the same weight in the
Equation of Programming Factors nowadays... but... here's the sly part...
not only is code written in those days still running happily (Mr Swarbrick
indicated the program saw its first incarnation in 1978) BUT... is it not
a Good Thing to keep later modifications as close to the style of the
running code as possible?

The conclusion will be left as an exercise for the reader.

DD
.

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