Re: Alter and move corresponding: was The tragedy of SQL

On 9/15/21 11:52 AM, Steve Litt wrote:
> Gavin Flower said on Wed, 15 Sep 2021 13:49:39 +1200
>
>> Hi Michael,
> [snip]
>
>>> COBOL has strange verbs like 'move corresponding' that could
>>> accomplish complicated tasks in a few lines but you have to be
>>> careful that you knew what you were asking for!

MOVE CORRESPONDING is awesome, and a heck of a lot less dangerous than doing 
your own memory management in C!!

>>> In our site that was banned as being too dangerous.
>>>
>>> And how about the 'lovely' ALTER GOTO construct???
>>>
>>> Children don't try to use these constructs at home, as even
>>> experienced adults get burnt using them!
> I never Cobolled professionally, but took 3 semesters of Cobol and
> Santa Monica Community College in Santa Monica, California USA. They
> taught us move corresponding, I used it, it was handy. I'd use it again
> if I were a Cobol professional.
>
> As far as alter, in 1981, before I became a programmer, I asked my
> Cobol Programmer friend if there was anything you could put in a
> program that would get you fired. He said yes, the alter statement :-).
> In my 3 semesters of Cobol, I never once used the Alter statement.

Jump tables are great in scripting languages which let you embed a variable 
in a variable name.  Naturally, you must be careful; explicit variable names 
always help...


-- 
Angular momentum makes the world go 'round.