Subj : Re: COBOL?
To   : unixl0rd
From : Dr. What
Date : Fri Jun 02 2023 07:21 am

-=> unixl0rd wrote to CDP <=-

 un> I've got about fifteen years of experience as a web developer and to be
 un> honest I am kinda bored. Learning COBOL might give me the stimulation I
 un> need right now even if it doesn't land me a job.

In general, learning other languages, especially on different platforms,
teaches you a great deal and make you think a little differently in the
programming languages that you use.

Back when I was in college, they taught Pascal as the starting language.  Not
because it was a great language that you would use in the Real World, but
because you would often take the ideas that you learned in Pascal and apply
them to other languages like FORTRAN or COBOL (ex: minimize GOTO statements).

For me, learning about Python's async code helped me a great deal in
understanding the same ideas in C# that I use for work.

It also helps to get a difference perspective from other systems with other
constraints.  At work, we had a problem where a newby programmer basically sent
16GB through a system that assumed that data would be 16MB and basically gummed
everything up.  The root problem was that this newby programmer had never
encountered a system that didn't have more than enough resources to do whatever
he want.  For those of us who grew up with computers with 16K, we always think
about asking if we have enough resources.


.... You would if you could but you can't so you won't.
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