Re: COBOL Compiler for Windows

Pete Dashwood wrote:
> "Michael Wojcik" <mwojcik@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:fv7fch02im3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 >>
>> Or maybe he wants a mainframe emulation environment, which would let
him
>> run programs with EXEC CICS and EXEC SQL macros. We do sell such a
>> product, after all (a few of 'em, actually).
>>
>> It's not free, though. It's not even cheap. Emulating the mainframe
>> operating environment is not trivial.
> 
> Sure it is.

OK, Pete, code it up. I'm sure you could make a mint selling it.

Really, this must be one of the weakest claims I've ever seen you post 
here, and that's saying something. There are 622 pages of technical 
specifications in the CICS Prog Ref alone. Duplicating all of that 
behavior requires a major development investment, regardless of the 
technology it's built on or who's doing the work. And that's just the 
CICS API.

Let's take an easy bit, as an example: emulating IBM's versions of the 
BSD sockets interface (EZASOKET and EZACICAL) on top of Winsock and 
SUSv3 sockets. That's about seven thousand lines of C source. You're 
welcome to try to do better.

> One day the mainframe world will wake up to the fact that they have a
> choice. There WAS a time when mainframe hardware was the only game in
town
> and vendors (both hardware and software) could charge anything they
liked.

All of our customers know they have a choice. They're exercising it by 
buying our products.

Perhaps one day you'll realize that you're just another programmer 
with an opinion, and not a prophet with a divine channel to 
transcendent and unassailable truth. But I'm not holding my breath.

> We paid $300,000 for an IBM 360-30 that had a fraction of the processing
> power that the machine I'm writing this on has.

Hurrah for you. That has absolutely nothing to do with the effort 
required to emulate the mainframe environment.

> Gee, Michael, guess you forgot to mention the runtime fees...?

No; I didn't mention them because they weren't relevant. I didn't 
forget to mention the price of tea in China, either.

-- 
Michael Wojcik
Micro Focus