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 * Cobol 2 C++ README  	*
 * V1.0b 2002-09-10	*
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 WHAT IS THIS CRAP?
 
 The 'crap' is a source code translation software for an old school programming language called COBOL.
 This software translates/converts the COBOL source code into much more flexible C++ source code.
 
 WHY SHOULD I WANT TO DO THIS?
 
 1) COBOL is like a 'dead' language. In many computers systems from the era of the dinosuars (back in the 60ies and 70ies)
    there are thousands and thousands lines of crappy COBOL code. Nobody wants to maintain thus systems since nobody
    wants to learn a dead language.
 
 2) PORTABILITY! C++ follows the POSIX standard (COBOL doesn't). This is a standard for portability between OSes. So if you
    can compile your program on any UNIX you probably can on most of them and all other POSIX compatible OSes.
    
 3) Migrating data between systems can be kinda diffucult, especially from older systems to newer ones. I hope to implement
    a function to read indexed files and export them to textfiles or any other well-known format.
 
 4) Develop new programs from old (COBOL) programs.
 
 5) Take benefit from the strenght in C++, especially classes and strings.
 
 6) Getting your old programs running on your new Intel Pentium IV 2.1 MHz with Windows/Unix/Linux/BeOS or any other OS. This
    a big reason why you should use this program. If you are too *lazy* for rewriting your programs use this software!
 
 7) YOUR OWN CONSIDERATION.

WHAT'S THE DIFFRENT BETWEEN THIS PROGAM AND OTHER PROGRAMS ON THE MARKET?

1) It's Simple, the source code of the program is the simplest as possible.
2) NO SYNTAX checking, allowing local variants of COBOL to compile.
3) It's free for NON-commercical use!
 
DEVELOPMENT STAFF:

Active:
Markus Gothe, Co-founder.

Inactive:
Jens Svensson, Co-founder.

Interested in helping/development? Mail us at: margo284@student.liu.se

VERSION HISTORY:

Public:
2002-09-10: The first g'zipped tarball release. Probably the first release online.
Spring 2002: One year after the project started the 1.0 Public Beta was released.
Added support for filehandling; Version 1.0b relesed


Non-Public releases:
Winter 2002: C++ strings and streams added, more portability and less standard C...
Markus rewrote most of the sourcecode (about 90%) to get it straight into C++.
POSTprocessor added and records now implemented as classes(Splendid!) instead of structs. The great advantage of using
classes instead of structs for record types is that you can take benefit from the constructors and operator overloading;
Version 0.9 released
Autumn 2001: Markus added the preprocessor. Jens left the project; Version 0.8 released
Spring 2001: Project started as a homework in a course on programming languages, files mainly generated in standard C;