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[homepage.git] / blog / archive / 2020 / 04 / 04.rss

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                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
 
        
+       <item>
+               <title>GnuCOBOL, a free platform to learn and use COBOL - nice free software</title>
+               <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/GnuCOBOL__a_free_platform_to_learn_and_use_COBOL___nice_free_software.html</link>        
+               <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/GnuCOBOL__a_free_platform_to_learn_and_use_COBOL___nice_free_software.html</guid>
+                <pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2020 13:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
+               <description>&lt;p&gt;The curiosity got the better of me when
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/04/06/1424246/new-jersey-desperately-needs-cobol-programmers&quot;&gt;Slashdot
+reported&lt;/a&gt; that New Jersey was desperately looking for
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL&quot;&gt;COBOL&lt;/a&gt; programmers,
+and a few days later it was reported that
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://onezero.medium.com/ibm-rallies-cobol-engineers-to-save-overloaded-unemployment-systems-eeadf13eddce&quot;&gt;IBM
+tried to locate COBOL programmers&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I thus decided to have a look at free software alternatives to
+learn COBOL, and had the pleasure to find
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/&quot;&gt;GnuCOBOL&lt;/a&gt; was
+already &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gnucobol&quot;&gt;in
+Debian&lt;/a&gt;.  It used to be called Open Cobol, and is a &quot;compiler&quot;
+transforming COBOL code to C or C++ before giving it to GCC or Visual
+Studio to build binaries.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I managed to get in touch with upstream, and was impressed with the
+quick response, and also was happy to see a new Debian maintainer
+taking over when the original one recently asked to be replaced.  A
+new Debian upload was done as recently as yesterday.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Using the Debian package, I was able to follow a simple COBOL
+introduction and make and run simple COBOL programs.  It was fun to
+learn a new programming language.  If you want to test for yourself,
+&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuCOBOL&quot;&gt;the GnuCOBOL Wikipedia
+page&lt;/a&gt; have a few simple examples to get you startet.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;As I do not have much experience with COBOL, I do not know how
+standard compliant it is, but it claim to pass most tests from COBOL
+test suite, which sound good to me.  It is nice to know it is possible
+to learn COBOL using software without any usage restrictions, and I am
+very happy such nice free software project as this is available.  If
+you as me is curious about COBOL, check it out.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
+activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
+&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+</description>
+       </item>
+       
        <item>
                <title>Totalovervåkning av innbyggernes bevegelser - nei takk!</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Totaloverv_kning_av_innbyggernes_bevegelser___nei_takk_.html</link>