Chiming in here because of the overwhelming popular demand for my unsolicited opinions: I ~mostly~ agree with your definition of "programming language", but I usually add that it has to have at least some primitive sort of if-then construction. JCL didn't use to make the grade, but it does now. So yeah, when I'm listing the programming languages I can use I sometimes include JCL ... barely.
Lacking if-then, the language is simply a list of programs or commands to be run one after the other, like MS .bat language was at first and as QMF is now (or was when I last used it). I call instructions written in those languages "scripts", and decline to use that word for programs written in REXX, VBA, CLIST and the like, which are full-scale programming languages. --- Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 /* Every year, on April 15, all members of Congress would be placed in individual prison cells with the necessary tax forms and a copy of the Tax Code. They would remain locked in the cells, without food or water, until they had completed their tax returns and successfully undergone a full IRS audit. Of course this system would probably result in a severe shortage of congresspersons. But there might also be some drawbacks. -Dave Barry's plan to simplify the tax code, 2000-04-09 */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Pommier, Rex Sent: Monday, March 27, 2023 16:18 Using my most basic definition of a computer language - it's a list of commands that can be saved to run it multiple times just by invoking the list name, then both JCL and CLIST are languages (as is HTML), and both have redeeming qualities. How many of you (hypothetically) are running JCL "decks" (and I used that term on purpose) that were first built on punch cards with little to no change since they were first built? JOL anybody? I would say a redeeming value of JCL is that there's nothing out there to easily replace it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
