Re: Next generation COBOL?

Oliver Wong wrote:
Depends on what you mean by "integral". Java 1.5, purely as a language (i.e. without the libraries typically bundled with the compile), has no concept of GUIs, but it does have special support for iterating through every element in a collection, like so:

for (ElementType element : collection) {
  doSomethingWith(element);
}

I should have picked up on the above. The J4 intended Standard has an Iterator class, and here's a Net Express example using the class Callback,(aka Iterator) :-


** DBI = DataBase Interface - a go-between-class sitting between the BuisnessDriver class and either the COBOL file or SQL Table class.

       *>-------------------------------------------------------------
       Method-id. "deleteGroup".
       *>-------------------------------------------------------------
       *> Invoked from CountryDBI when a Country record is
       *> to be deleted from the Treeview. Get collection of Cheeses
       *> subordinate to Country. Delete individual chesse File/Table
       *> records. Cheeses affected are removed from the Treeview when
       *> the Parent Country label is 'destroyed'.

       Local-storage section.
       01 ls-number                        pic x(4) comp-5.
       01 ls-size                          pic x(4) comp-5.
       01 ls-string                        object reference.

       01 ls-Callback                      object reference.

       Linkage section.
       01 lnk-TvCountry            object reference.
       copy "\copylib\sqlResult.cpy" replacing ==(tag)== by ==01 Lnk==.

       Procedure Division using lnk-TvCountry
                          returning lnk-SqlResult.

       move zeroes to lnk-SqlResult
       invoke lnk-TvCountry "getItems" returning os-CountryCollection
       invoke Callback "new"
              using     self "deleteGroup2 " returning ls-Callback
       invoke os-CountryCollection "do" using ls-Callback
       invoke ls-Callback "finalize" returning ls-Callback

       End Method "deleteGroup".
       *>-------------------------------------------------------------
       Method-id. "deleteGroup2".         *> Callback Method
       *>-------------------------------------------------------------
       Linkage section.
       01 lnk-CheeseElement             object reference.

       Procedure Division using lnk-CheeseElement.

       set CheeseLabel to true
       invoke self "getTvLabel" using lnk-CheeseElement
       move ws-OldCheeseKey to Cheese-PrimeKey
       invoke os-CheeseFile "deleteRecord"
              using Cheese-PrimeKey returning Cheese-SqlResult

       if   FileError
            invoke self "PB-Exit"
       End-If

       End Method "deleteGroup2".
       *>-------------------------------------------------------------

Using method "do" the above is basic iteration; if comparison checking, within the callback method I can have :-

	if <condition met>
	invoke MyCollection "quitIteration"

A la Smalltalk there are three other methods "select" "reject" and "collect" which I don't use - "select" if true put into a new sub-collection, "reject" if false put into a new sub-collection and "collect" - never quite figured this one - put into a new sub-collection, (obviously based on some selection criteria).

Jimmy
.