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

[ajb at spamcop.net]

G'day all.

I asked:

> Actually, a more interesting problem is what you'd replace COBOL with,
> and how you'd go about it.  Wouldn't it be nice if there was a modern
> language that you could write or rewrite new parts of your COBOL
> application in, and it all worked seamlessly with what you already had?

Henning Thielemann replied:

> Do you think of something like ABAP?
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABAP

I'd like to respond with some combination of:

  * I never try to think of ABAP.
  * No, I said "modern language".

But the fact is, I know nothing about ABAP apart from having heard of it
once.  Not that this has ever stopped us having strong opinions, right?

To be a true COBOL replacement, I think that one very important feature
is that it is link-compatible with existing COBOL code.  You're never
going to be able to replace a 6MLOC COBOL monster in any manner other
than piecemeal.

Cheers,
Andrew Bromage