Re: Next generation COBOL?

Herwig,

As a concept, the original COBOL (before they started tacking numbers onto it) was a thing of beauty - where with some skill you could clearly state your methodology in grammatically correct English, that even an untrained secretary could read. 

This was, to my mind, a failure - among those merits
COBOL admittedly actually has.

Precision does not need many words - it needs clear
concepts. Trying to use everyday language for programming
is doomed to be a failure - either it is not everyday
language, or it does not work.

COBOL has a very precise syntax - sort of like a 3-address assembly language with optional do-nothing connecting words allowed. I have seen COBOL programs in 4 columns with no optional words, looking just like an assembly language program! Indeed, the IBM mainframe instruction sets closely parallel COBOL operations. I am NOT proposing any attempt to understand casual language outside of such a precise syntax.

That having been said, my present project is "Dr. E1iza", an AI program with a module to chop complex sentences up into smaller sentences that are easy to parse. I could imagine a similar approach for a preprocessor to chop more complex English into valid COBOL statements, a little like the original C++ preprocessor transformed C++ programs to C. Of course, this would probably take EVEN MORE skill to program in, because the language would be richer but no more powerful.

And then - why should the untrained secretary read programs?
In order to understand concepts of commerce and finance, a
mind is not "untrained".


An "untrained mind" is someone who cannot form clear
and grammatically correct sentences. Such a mind cannot
program, in no language, and no application. There is no
programming language specially for blondes - and it's
certainly not COBOL.

You have "stupid mind" confused with "untrained mind". There are many people who are untrained but not stupid (blonds excluded) who could be trained with a little effort. I agree with you regarding stupid minds, but they wouldn't have any reason to read COBOL.

What is gradually emerging over many projects is a new concept for a distant descendant of COBOL, where things are stated in much higher-level problem-oriented terms and the details of data organization are taken care of by a much smarter execution environment than COBOL ever enjoyed. ... 

Well. Maybe. Distant descendant of nowadays computers
could even clean my windows. - I doubt that I live to
see it.

Sounds like a case of ill health? You can now purchase an inexpensive "spot bot" in many stores! Now, to move from rugs to windows...

Also, it is SO simple that you could write and debug an
interpreter or translator for it in something like BASIC in a week or so, so it should become ubiquitous for many of the things that VBA and Java are now used for, because of its 100% readability even by untrained people.

No. COBOL, even COBOL++, is no substitute for thinking.

I am really proposing going BACKWARDS to a earlier and simpler concept of COBOL. It won't be any easier to write, but it WILL be designed to embed into other systems, and will be SO simple that it is easy to implement.

Remember, the first COBOL compilers ran on 4KB IBM-1401 computers, something that probably couldn't be done with more modern incarnations of COBOL.

Perhaps I am not the only one following this path? 

You are not the only one. A former colleague of mine is
very fond of AI - and we often have an argument about that.

He always looses 

Obviously your opinion - I wonder what HIS opinion is?!!

I dare tell you because he does not read this group.

Perhaps you should send him a "heads up" regarding this discussion? He might have something to contribute.

Steve Richfie1d
.

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