Python and COBOL

[Alex Martelli]

"John W. Baxter" <jwbnews at scandaroon.com> wrote in message
news:jwbnews-250FF9.10424128082000 at news.olympus.net...
    [snip]
> I wrote a fair amount of COBOL (punched cards, and later glass TTY
> punched card images), and rather liked it.

My chance to write substantial Cobol (OK, with some SQL on the
side, I'll admit) came as I was lending a hand to a development
center trying to live with a rather-blotch 4thGL called "CSP" (for
"Cross-System Product", I believe).  The power of Cobol (and,
ok, some SQL on the side) was simply _awesome_ compared with
the living hell that it was to make CSP do anything even slightly
different from what its designers (?) had in mind...

(Python, or Rexx, or C, or even 360 BAL, would have been big
further steps forward, I suspect:-).


Alex