[PLUG] [plug-announce] Wed, Feb 1, 2017: PLUG Central - "Secrets of the Dead: What Modern Programmers Can Learn from COBOL" by Walt Mankowski (7pm at USP)

["Paul L. Snyder" <paul@pataprogramming.com>]

NOTE: Please check the PLUG website before heading out on Wednesday
in case of weather-related cancellations.

PLUG Central will be meeting on Wednesday, February 1, at USP in 
Philadelpha, beginning at 7pm. Directions to the meeting location 
at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia can be found at 
the end of this email. 

This month, PLUG West welcomes back Dr. Walt Mankowski, who will be
giving a talk entitled "Secrets of the Dead: What Modern Programmers
Can Learn from COBOL". Walt has previously given versions of this talk
at FOSSCON 2016, PLUG West, and PLUG North.
   
  COBOL is the Rodney Dangerfield of the programming world - it
  doesn't get any respect. COBOL is routinely denigrated for its
  verbosity and dismissed as archaic, and for good reason: COBOL
  bears little to no resemblance to modern programming languages.
  Yet COBOL is far from a dead language. COBOL processes an
  estimated 85% of all business transactions, and 5 billion new
  lines of COBOL are written every year.

  I spent 10 years as a COBOL developer and saw first-hand the
  good and the bad of the language. Many of its criticisms are
  valid, and most PLUG attendees would probably be appalled at
  COBOL's syntax. But as COBOL approaches its 7th decade of
  active use, it's worth remembering that there are a few things
  that COBOL got spectacularly right, particularly in its primary
  niche in mainframe business programming. These include:

    * Separation of code, presentation, and operating environment
    * Datatypes to handle decimal currency amounts
    * Reading and writing fixed-length records

  And that appalling syntax is simple enough that even
  non-programmers can learn the basics in a few hours.

  Attendees will come away with old techniques they can apply to
  their new systems, and a new-found respect for their elders.

This month, PLUG Central will feature a talk by Anthony Marti
who whill be presenting an introduction to Django, a Python-based
web framework. The presention will give an overview of Django,
and will include an example of getting a new project running
using RHEL/CentOS 7, Python 3.4, Django 1.8.x, and Apache.

  https://www.djangoproject.com/

University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP) 
Griffith Hall (Room "C" or "A", look for the signs) 
600 South 43rd Street 
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4495 

USP is located in University City. Driving directions are 
available at http://www.phillylinux.org/locations/usp.html, or 
http://www.usip.edu/directions, both of which have an aerial 
view of the campus buildings. USP is also easily accessible by 
public transportation. 

There will be an open Question & Answer session at 7PM, prior to 
the main presentation at 8PM. This is an open meeting; all are 
welcome and encouraged to attend. 

Usually, a number of members get together after the meeting at a 
nearby restaurant for food and perhaps a beer or two. Come join 
the camaraderie! 
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