Python in the enterprise: Pros and cons

Kim Petersen kp at kyborg.dk
Fri Jul 12 05:22:51 EDT 2002


Laura Creighton wrote:
> Kim Petersen:
> <snip>
> 
>>Learning Python is straight forward, and doesn't scare of a COBOL 
>>programmer in the way that C++ or Java would.
>>
> 
> 
> Is getting a float when they wanted a fixed-decimal a problem?

It seems that Cameron already answered this one ;-)

But i should say that this hasn't become a problem here yet, as the 
programmers know that there will be sacrifices on both ends of this 
conversion (Cobol -> Python). I have a feeling that i will be forced to 
write a some kind of framework for the programmers, to encompass some of 
the output formatting types in Cobol and possibly also a transparent 
class to do fixed decimal...

But we haven't reached that stage yet, first things first ;-) And in 
this case it was extending the Cobol runtime with the ability to call 
python programs and functions dynamically (we're using RM-Cobol-85 7.1) 
- this is firmly established at this point - and i'm considering 
releasing this to the wider community as open-source (i'm for it - but 
i'm not sure about my Boss ;-)) - Unfortunatly the extension cannot do 
the reverse (eg. performing cobol paragraphs (functions)) because of the 
way the language is setup. But type conversion between Cobol and Python 
is (almost) transparent (unfortunatly it cannot be 100% transparent, as 
Cobol calls subprograms with arguments by reference).

> 
> Laura Creighton
> 
> 





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