RE: AW: More on RPG style

["Dennis Lovelady" <iseries@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I remember back in college I loved the idea of a "readable" language.
> One
> where you wouldn't need !=, ||, && and the like.  You could just say
> things like NOT, EQUAL, AND, XOR, etc.  There are some languages that
> implement many of these common ones now days.  SQL seems to be the
> closest
> that I've seen actually, and that is only a query language.

I am not trying to sell COBOL to this list (and I know I was taking my life
in my hands when talking about C on a list monitored by Simon [Hi,
Simon!])... but that language comes closest to any that I've seen -
including SQL - to natural language.  Of course, look where that has gotten
it - but that aside, I do find merit in reading (but not typing)

    IF sales-Amount IS NOT LESS THAN discount-Break-Point 
       PERFORM discounting-routine
    ELSE
       PERFORM non-discounting-routine
    End-if

Here's a COBOL feature that should be in every language:
   IF discount-Code is equal to discount1 or discount2 or discount3 or
discount4 ...
   (equally valid is "if dis-cod = d1 or d2 or d3 or d4" - it doesn't HAVE
to be wordy)
(Why make me say "is equal to" four times for such a test?)  SQL at least
has the (welcomed) IN (list) phrase, which comes close. 

I'll shut up now.

Dennis Lovelady
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennislovelady
--
"I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw that my bath toys were a toaster
and a radio."
        -- Joan Rivers