100 Years of Grace Hopper

theodp writes "Grab your COBOL Coding Forms and head on over to comp.lang.cobol, kids! Yesterday was Grace Hopper's 100th birthday, and many are still singing the praises of her Common Business-Oriented Language."

Women

[Anonymous Coward]

It figures. One of the wordiest (is that a word?) programming languages was invented by a woman. Talk talk talk. :-)

I couldn't resist.

Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to you!

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though you died in 1992, Happy Birthday to You!

The only way...

[camperdave]

The only way I could code my way out of a wet paper bag in COBOL would be if my life depended on it (and I had a few COBOL programming texts in the bag with me). All I remember about COBOL is that it is long winded... as per its alternate acronym expansion: Considered Obsolete Because Of Length.

My name is Eric Hopper

[Omnifarious]

And while I'm sadly not related (or perhaps just not very closely related) to Grace Hopper, it's still neat that someone else with that somewhat unusual last name is in computing. :-)

I have a point system for what people think of when I mention my last name:

• Dennis Hopper [wikipedia.org]: Not that I dislike Dennis Hopper or anything, but mentioning a famous contemporary actor is just too easy and makes me think the person is likely someone who gets way more from pop-culture than they should. -1 point
• Edward Hopper [wikipedia.org]: Oooh, mildly obscure (as compared to, say, Leonarda da Vinci) painter who painted urban scenes from the 30s and 40s. Interesting. +1 point.
• Grace Hopper [wikipedia.org]: Found the first recorded real bug in computing. Inventor of the concept of a high-level language, responsible for COBOL, first woman admiral in the Navy... Wow! +50 points
• Hopper: The grasshopper from Bug's life. No point value, but it does earn a very strange look.

Re:Kids: Learn COBOL, stay employed

[camperdave]

Nonsense! Cobol is machine independent and self-documenting, and it is still around because it is a very fit, if not the fittest, language for business purposes. Besides It would likely be far easier to pull together a COBOL compiler than to rewrite, test, debug, (document, don't forget document) and release any application that was written in COBOL.

Re:My name is Eric Hopper

[PsyQo]

Yes dad, that's cool and all, but there are also loads of people making fun of our name.

Greetings,
- Hip

Ahhhhhh yess...

[Bananatree3]

the art of COBOL, and what an art it is. I am sorry no young grasshoppers have taken up this valuable language.

COBOL =

[larien]

Completely Obsolete Business Oriented Language...

That said, I work in a company which still runs a lot of COBOL code - a bank, funnily enough. I think banks are about the only people still using code written in the 70s *sigh*

Re:Women

[Anonymous Coward]

She makes sure that men now hates period (dot) as well.

Learn novice: be one with the Tao

[symbolset]

From the Tao of Programming: http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programmin g.html [canonical.org]

Each language has its purpose, however humble. Each language expresses the Yin and Yang of software. Each language has its place within the Tao.

But do not program in COBOL if you can avoid it.

Re:Transcending the Matrix

[Anonymous Coward]

Before calling anyone a foe, watch his comment history and moderation. This "Anonymous Coward" guy, for example, is a very active troll and OT poster even if he shows some occasional insight. He also suffers from severe multiple personality disorder.