From: "Michael Mattias" <michael DOT mattias AT gte DOT net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp,alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++,alt.lang.basic
References: <8E0A6B90Bjsampsonpostmasterco AT news DOT earthlink DOT net> <OdFl3.2157$xN4 DOT 20163 AT news3 DOT mia> <9APl3.1054$XG6 DOT 30509 AT dfiatx1-snr1 DOT gtei DOT net> <90_l3.4474$xN4 DOT 43628 AT news3 DOT mia>
Subject: Re: A small bussiness billing application
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NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 21:33:42 GMT
Distribution: world
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 21:33:42 GMT
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

First, I hope you realize the "bigot" comment was jocular. I've seen a lot
of your BASIC code and it's some pretty good stuff.

Second, there's no reason using long integers and doing stuff in pennies
must perforce result in slow bloatware. The long integer is but a tool, and
as we all know, it's not the paintbrush, it's the artist.

Third, given a financial application (which I really not do many of), with
both BASIC and COBOL available, I'd do it in COBOL, unless I had a lot a
string-handling to do, in which case I'd do it in BASIC. In the latter case,
I'd look real hard for a way to do the string work in BASIC and the numeric
stuff (especially the formatting of screens and reports) in COBOL.

--
Michael Mattias
Tal Systems
Racine WI USA
michael DOT mattias AT gte DOT net
Judson McClendon wrote in message <90_l3.4474$xN4 DOT 43628 AT news3 DOT mia>...
>Sure, and the only cost is making your money handling code 4 times
>longer, and ten times as error prone. :-)
> ...
>As both a BASIC and COBOL (at least) programmer yourself, would
>you choose BASIC with no decimal variables over COBOL, to write
>financial applications, assuming both were available?