h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Konrad,

I just saw the subbed COBOL entry appearing on my personal space, well done.

There is a small point which I'd like to clarify however: in the para beginning with 'COBOL is a rather verbose...', there's a sentence now reading 'There are a lot of filler words and many constructions that aren't necessary and could just as well be left out.', which is IMHO a bit misleading now. What I meant to say, but failed because of using programming jargon , was that in many programming instructions (aka techspeak 'constructs') of this particular programming language, there are a lot of fill words that aren't necessary.

It's up to you, really, to ignore this completely, but could you have a look at that sentence? If you feel it's ok, then leave it as it is...

Again, good work!

Thanks for the note!

Yeah, I know where you're coming from and I ummed and ahhed a bit when making that particular change. Partially because I wasn't sure exactly what sense you wanted to carry. My fault for rushing and being generally mentally knackered (I've been out of the h2g2 loop for 5 weeks revising and taking exams and therefore I'm trying to catch up on the subbing before they boot me off the team) as normally I'd have dropped you a line and given you a week to look at the subbed one before sending it up .

You're right, but the way I look at it, by using the term 'constructions' rather than the more specific but technical constructs, I've just broadened the meaning of the sentence. So I think its OK - maybe not as precise as yours but perhaps a little more understandable to the layman...

Do you see what I'm getting at?

Konrad