[Haskell-cafe] Somewhat random history question - chicken and egg

[Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH]

On Nov 11, 2007, at 17:26 , jerzy.karczmarczuk at info.unicaen.fr wrote:

> Andrew Coppin writes:
>> Brent Yorgey wrote:
>>>     Expressiveness certainly makes it easier, but nothing (other  
>>> than
>>>     sanity...) stops you from writing a Haskell compiler in, say,  
>>> COBOL. *I* would stop you.  Friends don't let friends write in  
>>> COBOL.
>> That's the funniest thing I've read today. You literally just woke  
>> my mum up by making my laugh. Thanks! :-D
>
> I would be the last who wanted to spoil such a good joke.
> But... tell me please, ANYONE, who takes part in this inspiring  
> exchange:
> How many COBOL programs have you written in your life?
> How many programs in Cobol have you actually SEEN?

I've maintained an accounting system and a material requirements  
planning system written in COBOL.  I've written various random things  
including a Newton's Method program (because I was taking an entry  
level computing-for-math course which bored me out of my skull ---  
wasn't allowed to place out of it, and already knew all of it, so I  
got my revenge by submitting assignments in random languages).

COBOL has its place.  Compiler design is *not* it.

-- 
brandon s. allbery [solaris,freebsd,perl,pugs,haskell] allbery at kf8nh.com
system administrator [openafs,heimdal,too many hats] allbery at ece.cmu.edu
electrical and computer engineering, carnegie mellon university    KF8NH