did anyone ever program in RPG?

[rprosperi]

(07-03-2015 08:18 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  One time I made a one-line change in a COBOL program, compiled the new version and got like 1000 error messages (I'm probably exaggerating a bit)....
I had unknowingly deleted a period at the end of one of the COBOL division lines.

When learning Focal (the original DEC PDP-8 version, very much like Basic) and Fortran in High School in the 70's, the Prof (or Math Teacher I suppose is more correct) told us this exact horror story about Cobol (i.e. 1 missing period=pages of errors). The result was exactly the same for the whole group of us in that class, verified many years later - that result being we all avoided Cobol like the plague, and we also tested it to see if it was true. As you all know, it was true.

Funny to see others had the same experience.

Though I hear one can make damn good money today with good Cobol skills... so the last laugh may not be ours.