Re: COBOL Compiler for Windows

On Fri, 2 May 2008 11:55:22 +1200, "Pete Dashwood"
<dashwood@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Fair comment, Doc.
>
>Before this spins out of control I better be clear about what particular 
>flavour of "batch processing" I WAS addressing.
>
>It was the "traditional" processing of "batches" of transactions. The
stuff 
>that is currently done in overnight windows to update back end databases.

>However, I will extend it to include manually written DB scans that build

>reports. (as opposed to single queries or Lambdas where the RDBMS
software 
>decides what will be scanned and by which processor and when...)
>
>I said it would be redundant.
>
>My reasons for that are as follows:
>
>1. Before we had online processing, batch processing was the only 
>processing. COBOL was ideally suited to it and this led to the
development 
>of a culture that "took it as read".


To me, this is kind of like someone a century ago saying bicycles
would be obsolete - by defining bicycles as being "Ordinary bicycles".
But in real life, things evolve and change.

Even with your definition, I see the need for snapshot reports to
continue.    I also see the need to process a file of transactions
(even if that file is an individual's tax form that gets e-mailed to
the feds). 

Business will have to change considerably before we can tell companies
to deposit pay into individual accounts as the employee is working.
Weekly payroll processing will continue for a while - but modified so
that the person who only worked one day can get his pay when he
leaves.