[hosh]

I remember growing up in the 80s and picking up disdain for COBOL because it was verbose. But then,

1. I recently found out that COBOL can calculate numerics to a degree of precision greater than most languages and libraries. It was a PITA to do monetary calculations right and it is built into the core of COBOL.

2. Reading the sample COBOL code, I realized though I can’t scan it fast, it is structured in a way that is not much different than reading or writing SQL.

3. Having written Ruby for 10 years, and spending a lot of time with DSLs and business domain languages, the aims of COBOL is really not that much different.

4. Having taken the long path through learning the design philosophy of Smalltalk, Christopher Alexander, sandstorm.io, Free Software, as well as my evolving thoughts on “regenerative technologies”, I am coming to the conclusion that it is important for end users to be able modify their computing environment for use in their local community. As such, COBOL may be a good case study for designing pattern languages.