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Re: Java is Object-Oriented COBOL
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Posted: Jun 1, 2011 8:25 AM
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I am so glad somebody had the guts to start this forum. First of all, let me introduce myself. I have been in the IT for close to 25 years. I graduated with a degree in Computer Info Systems as opposed to a Degree in Computer Science.
My school which is a renowned Business School recomended 2 curriculums one was business orietated, the other business orientated. I chose the business orientated curriculum because that is where the jobs were/are 25 years ago.
During that time there were 2 major platforms MVS and Unix. Everybody understood that one was scientific(Unix) and the other was business orientated(MVS). MVS supported many high level languages such as COBOL, PL1 and others.
Assembler which was their version of machine language was also supported. I'm not sure what Unix was doing at that time since I considered the application very different. While studying for my degree I can say i learned about 5 differnet MVS supported Languages and Utilities. One each Semester.
Although these languages were relatively complicated , they all had similar syntax and functions so after learning one you could easily learn another.
Fast Forward to the 21 st century and after taking classes in C, C++, Basic Java + intermediate Java I'm still trying to figure out what the language is about ? Java is just not suited for business purposes !
It's great for writing graphs, figuring out the Area of circles and rectangles, displaying graphics on a screen, but the language is way to cumbersome and complicated to write a simple 2 page report with headings.
The I/O file handling facilities must have been written on another planet or the creators of Java ran out of 'Unicode" characters. Like you I feel sorry for the kids today that have this language pushed down their throats.
To make it even more complicated for the average person to understand the bean-heads at SUN and Unix loaded the language with words such as Polymorphism, HashMap, Encapsulation. For what / Every book I pick up on Java goes through the X and Y coordinate stuff that is rarely mentioned in business applications.
How this language came to replace COBOL which was a language written for the masses is beyond me. In my opinion a computer language is supposed to make it easy to apply to an application. The application might be difficult but the computer program should not be. You should not have to scan an entire program for a missing '{' bracket, that is ridiculous !
I attended a Java class recently with 20 other COBOL programmers. At the end of that class there were 5 programmers left with myself included. The COBOL programmers left because this language insulted their intelligence, they had better things to do than to go through books which were thousand pages long.
Many older high-level programs have already tried this "library driven" approach to programming, but had to abandon it after it was found that debugging these types of programs was a living nightmare ! Not only that, the J2EE platform is not your JCL, but a highly complicated system of tables and libraries that would take the average person a life-time to master.
My first introduction to Java 12 years ago, scared the living mess out of me when I saw another programmer sitting by the printer waiting for his program to print. Looking over his shoulder I saw a stream of cryptic code that would make a hieroglyphic expert shake in their boots.
Unfortunately 25 years later I have no choice in the matter if I want to pay my bills, this is a shame.
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