Language criticism/selection

[jle]

Jim Cottrell (rbj at icst-cmr.arpa) writes:

>I keep telling people that COBOL is a better language than FORTRAN.
>Add to that list 3) good data structuring and 4) nice formatting.

I assume that this is an attempt on his part of making a quip or other
snap comment.  How ANY language can be said to be better (or worse)
than another without mentioning the environment, problem needing solution, 
etc. escapes me!  For some applications, COBOL provides an elegant solution,
yet it is not the language of choice for solving fluid dynamics problems.
But then, neither FORTRAN or COBOL should be the language chosen for the
next major release of UNIX.  For rigorous system solutions, RPG or
SNOBOL are the best bet (:-)

                                             Joe Leonard
                                        <jmleonar at crdec.arpa>

Disclaimer: The views of my employer do not conform to my views, or to any
            accepted standard of logic that the Greeks thought up anyway...