| WARNING: The following message contains references to an awful but unfortunately ubiquitous programming language. Do not proceed further if such things offend you.
I am working towards a masters' degree at a university which shall remain nameless. Since I didn't do my undergrad there, the bureaucracy wants me to take a couple courses they think are important.
Well, one of them is about, of all things, COBOL. Yes, the code-grinders' staple, the darling of suits. The one language everyone can agree to hate. And, to make it even more fun, we batch-submit our programs on an S/390 running MVS. Boy, oh boy.
If any of you have moral support to give, it will be gratefully received. If any of you could also recommend a free (beer) compiler or environment that I could use to develop my programs elsewhere than in the lab, I would also be most grateful.
I will not explain why I'm going to this university except to say that I have my reasons. In fairness, I should also add that there is an active LUG, they have a big Sun server and other Un*x boxen, and the first language that undergraduates learn is C (which, BTW, I get to teach to them). |
