3 ms·
> Taking recursion away seems like an unnecessary limitation Modern Cobol doesn't seem to have this limitation, eg http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookm
by kbp 8y ago
> Taking recursion away seems like an unnecessary limitation
Modern Cobol doesn't seem to have this limitation, eg http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/handheld/Connected/BOOKS/IGY3PG20/4.1.4 http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/handhel.... When Cobol originally appeared, call stacks weren't standard, Lisp didn't exist yet, and neither Fortran nor Algol supported recursive functions; it made sense at the time.
- jrq 8y agoOhhhhhh, of course! Gosh, thanks. I sometimes hold historical technology to unfair standards because I'm not thinking about the continuity of it all. Crazy to think twenty-somethings are out there hacking COBOL!