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Where
do I start? I was introduced to COBOL a long, long time
ago in a galaxy far, far away. At least, it feels like
that sometimes. August, 1968, I was discharged from the
Army. That winter I went into the family business,
roofing and siding homes in my home town of Lawrence,
Massachusetts. If you’re from the northern part of the
country you understand the harsh winters, cold, and
ice. My wife showed up on the job site one day with
lunch as my cousin and I were atop a four-story building
repairing a very icy slate roof. We descended from the
roof on an antique wooden ladder, which had a tendency
to bow in the middle. My wife handed me lunch and
proclaimed “You get a new job or a new wife!” I could
sense the resolve in her voice. The next day I started
looking for a safer job.
In the
newspaper I found an ad for someone to change tapes on a
computer and decollate carbon paper from computer
printouts. This seemed like the perfect job for me,
computers! If only I knew what they were. At the
interview I met Dr. Roland Holt, bow tie and all,
sitting in the computer room at Little Brown and Co.
Dr. Holt rented computer time to process orders for his
book wholesale business. I was hired. We negotiated a
deal that he would teach me to program computers, mostly
in assembler and some COBOL. Of course I found COBOL to
be much easier. It’s been 40 years and I have been
writing applications in COBOL ever since.
What was true
then is true today. COBOL is much easier to comprehend
and work with than most other languages. For years COBOL
has been scorned, maligned, and ridiculed. It’s labeled
archaic and not relevant to today’s needs, especially
with the internet and graphical windows based
applications. This is far from true. Today’s COBOL
compilers offer an incredible array of capabilities for
web interaction, .NET, and data base connectivity.
How did this
lead me to publish a magazine? For years I have
gathered information about COBOL. Book stores offer
magazines about Java, Pearl, C and dozens more, but
nothing for COBOL. The section for programming languages
rarely offers COBOL sources. While there is information
on the world wide web, there has not been a focal point
for our community of professionals. You may find
information about COBOL and related topics but nothing
that really binds the community.
COBOL remains
as clean, adaptable, and flexible as when Dr. Holt
introduced me to it in 1968. Most of the world’s large
mainframes are humming along with COBOL. Because it’s
written in English it’s easy to learn. The companies
and programmers who work with COBOL will benefit from
COBOL Magazine and related web sites that create a focal
point for the community.
Welcome to
COBOL Magazine!
Frank
Gauthier
Publisher
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