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COBOL Programming Language History
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COBOL programming language history
history of COBOL Programming language
history of the COBOL Programming language
- Snippet from Wikipedia: COBOL
COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural, and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. COBOL is still widely used in applications deployed on mainframe computers, such as large-scale batch and transaction processing jobs. Many large financial institutions were developing new systems in the language as late as 2006, but most programming in COBOL today is purely to maintain existing applications. Programs are being moved to new platforms, rewritten in modern languages, or replaced with other software.
COBOL was designed in 1959 by CODASYL and was partly based on the programming language FLOW-MATIC, designed by Grace Hopper. It was created as part of a U.S. Department of Defense effort to create a portable programming language for data processing. It was originally seen as a stopgap, but the Defense Department promptly pressured computer manufacturers to provide it, resulting in its widespread adoption. It was standardized in 1968 and has been revised five times. Expansions include support for structured and object-oriented programming. The current standard is ISO/IEC 1989:2023.
COBOL statements have prose syntax such as
MOVE x TO y, which was designed to be self-documenting and highly readable. However, it is verbose and uses over 300 reserved words compared to the succinct and mathematically inspired syntax of other languages.The COBOL code is split into four divisions (identification, environment, data, and procedure), containing a rigid hierarchy of sections, paragraphs, and sentences. Lacking a large standard library, the standard specifies 43 statements, 87 functions, and just one class.
COBOL has been criticized for its verbosity, design process, and poor support for structured programming. These weaknesses often result in monolithic programs that are hard to comprehend as a whole, despite their local readability.
For years, COBOL has been assumed as a programming language for business operations in mainframes, although in recent years, many COBOL operations have been moved to cloud computing.
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COBOL Programming Language, COBOL Source File, COBOL .cbl File Extension, COBOL .cob File Extension, COBOL .cobol File Extension, COBOL Compiler, COBOL Compilation Unit, COBOL Run-time System, COBOL Environment Division, COBOL Identification Division, COBOL Procedure Division, COBOL Data Division, COBOL Configuration Section, COBOL Input-Output Section, COBOL File-Control Paragraph, COBOL I-O Control Paragraph, COBOL File Section, COBOL Working-Storage Section, COBOL Local-Storage Section, COBOL Linkage Section, COBOL Communication Section, COBOL Report Section, COBOL FD Entry (File Descriptor), COBOL SD Entry (Sort Descriptor), COBOL SELECT Statement, COBOL ASSIGN Clause, COBOL ORGANIZATION Clause, COBOL ACCESS MODE, COBOL SEQUENTIAL Access, COBOL RELATIVE Access, COBOL INDEXED Access, COBOL RECORD KEY Clause, COBOL ALTERNATE KEY Clause, COBOL DYNAMIC Access Mode, COBOL RANDOM Access Mode, COBOL KEY IS Clause, COBOL LINAGE Clause, COBOL BLOCK CONTAINS Clause, COBOL RECORD CONTAINS Clause, COBOL RECORDING MODE Clause, COBOL LABEL RECORDS Clause, COBOL CODE-SET Clause, COBOL FILE STATUS Clause, COBOL FD (File Description) Entry, COBOL FILE SECTION Variables, COBOL WORKING-STORAGE Variables, COBOL 01 Level Number, COBOL 77 Level Number, COBOL 66 Level Number, COBOL 88 Level Number (Condition Names), COBOL PIC Clause (Picture), COBOL USAGE Clause, COBOL DISPLAY Usage, COBOL COMP Usage, COBOL COMP-3 (Packed Decimal), COBOL COMP-1 (Floating Point) , COBOL COMP-2 (Floating Double) , COBOL COMP-4 Equivalent to COMP, COBOL COMP-5 (Native Binary) , COBOL SIGN SEPARATE Clause, COBOL SIGN TRAILING Clause, COBOL JUSTIFIED RIGHT Clause, COBOL SYNCHRONIZED Clause, COBOL OCCURS Clause, COBOL OCCURS DEPENDING ON Clause, COBOL REDEFINES Clause, COBOL RENAMES Clause, COBOL VALUE Clause, COBOL VALUE IS Clause, COBOL FILLER Keyword, COBOL ACCEPT Statement, COBOL DISPLAY Statement, COBOL MOVE Statement, COBOL ADD Statement, COBOL SUBTRACT Statement, COBOL MULTIPLY Statement, COBOL DIVIDE Statement, COBOL COMPUTE Statement, COBOL INITIALIZE Statement, COBOL STRING Statement, COBOL UNSTRING Statement, COBOL INSPECT Statement, COBOL PERFORM Statement, COBOL PERFORM UNTIL, COBOL PERFORM VARYING, COBOL PERFORM THRU, COBOL EXIT Statement, COBOL STOP RUN Statement, COBOL GOBACK Statement, COBOL EVALUATE Statement, COBOL WHEN Clause (EVALUATE), COBOL CONTINUE Statement, COBOL NEXT SENTENCE Statement, COBOL IF Statement, COBOL ELSE Clause, COBOL END-IF Statement, COBOL GO TO Statement, COBOL ALTER Statement (Obsolete), COBOL SORT Statement, COBOL MERGE Statement, COBOL RELEASE Statement (for SORT), COBOL RETURN Statement (for SORT), COBOL SEARCH Statement, COBOL SEARCH ALL (Binary Search), COBOL CALL Statement, COBOL CANCEL Statement, COBOL LINKAGE SECTION Variables, COBOL USING Clause (in Procedure Division), COBOL EXIT PROGRAM Statement, COBOL ENTRY Statement (Obsolete), COBOL COPY Statement, COBOL REPLACE Directive, COBOL EJECT Directive, COBOL SKIP Directive, COBOL SERVICE RELOAD (IBM Extension, COBOL INTRINSIC FUNCTIONS, COBOL FUNCTION Keyword, COBOL CURRENT-DATE Function, COBOL NUMVAL Function, COBOL NUMVAL-C Function, COBOL WHEN-COMPILED Function, COBOL RANDOM Function, COBOL REM Function, COBOL LENGTH Function, COBOL MAX Function, COBOL MIN Function, COBOL MOD Function, COBOL SUBSTRING Function, COBOL UPPER-CASE Function, COBOL LOWER-CASE Function, COBOL NATIONAL-OF Function, COBOL DISPLAY-OF Function, COBOL TEST Function (in some compilers, COBOL EXAMINE Statement (Old name of INSPECT), COBOL CLASS Condition, COBOL ALPHABETIC Class Condition, COBOL ALPHANUMERIC Class Condition, COBOL NUMERIC Class Condition, COBOL JUSTIFIED Clause (in PIC), COBOL SYNCHRONIZED Clause repeated, COBOL ON SIZE ERROR Clause, COBOL ON OVERFLOW Clause, COBOL ON EXCEPTION Clause, COBOL INVALID KEY Clause, COBOL END-ADD Statement (in COBOL 2002+, COBOL END-SUBTRACT Statement, COBOL END-MULTIPLY Statement, COBOL END-DIVIDE Statement, COBOL END-COMPUTE Statement, COBOL END-PERFORM Statement, COBOL END-READ Statement, COBOL END-WRITE Statement, COBOL END-REWRITE Statement, COBOL END-DELETE Statement, COBOL END-RETURN Statement, COBOL END-SEARCH Statement, COBOL END-IF repeated, COBOL END-STRING Statement, COBOL END-UNSTRING Statement, COBOL END-INSPECT Statement, COBOL END-ACCEPT Statement, COBOL END-DISPLAY Statement, COBOL In-Line PERFORM, COBOL Nested Programs, COBOL END PROGRAM Header, COBOL CALL BY CONTENT, COBOL CALL BY REFERENCE, COBOL CALL BY VALUE, COBOL INITIAL Program Attribute, COBOL RECURSIVE Program Attribute, COBOL EXPORT and IMPORT (Some compilers support, COBOL ENTRY POINTS in Program, COBOL Debugging Lines (D in col 7), COBOL Comment Lines (*) in col 7, COBOL Continuation Lines (- in col 7), COBOL Fixed Format Source Columns, COBOL Column 7 Indicators, COBOL Column 72 Limit, COBOL Free Format (COBOL 2002+) , COBOL *CONTROL Compiler Directive, COBOL *CBL Compiler Directive, COBOL $ SET Compiler Directive (IBM), COBOL ADV Compiler Option, COBOL SSRANGE Compiler Option, COBOL APOST Compiler Option, COBOL RENT Compiler Option, COBOL MAP Compiler Option, COBOL OPTIMIZE Compiler Option, COBOL NOOPTIMIZE Compiler Option, COBOL INSPECT TALLYING, COBOL INSPECT REPLACING, COBOL INSPECT CONVERTING, COBOL STRING DELIMITED BY, COBOL UNSTRING DELIMITED BY, COBOL POINTER IN STRING/UNSTRING, COBOL SUBScripting Arrays (OCCURS), COBOL OCCURS Depending On Variables, COBOL Table Handling, COBOL SEARCH VERB, COBOL SEARCH ALL VERB, COBOL SORT VERB, COBOL MERGE VERB, COBOL USE FOR DEBUGGING ON Statement, COBOL USE Global Declarative, COBOL DECLARATIVES Section, COBOL END DECLARATIVES, COBOL FILE STATUS Checking, COBOL EXTEND MODE for files, COBOL REWRITE Statement, COBOL DELETE Statement (for indexed files), COBOL START Statement (indexed file positioning), COBOL READ NEXT, COBOL READ PREVIOUS (not standard widely COBOL READ KEY Is Clause, COBOL WRITE FROM Clause, COBOL WRITE ADVANCING PAGE, COBOL WRITE AFTER ADVANCING LINES, COBOL WRITE BEFORE ADVANCING, COBOL Page-Controlled Reports (REPORT SECTION), COBOL Report Writer Feature (Obsolete in some implementations), COBOL RH, PH, PF, DE, etc. in REPORT)], [[COBOL SPECIAL-NAMES Paragraph, COBOL DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA, COBOL CURRENCY SIGN Clause, COBOL CLASS Alphabet Name Definition, COBOL SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS, COBOL CRT STATUS Phrase (Old terminals), COBOL ADVANCING Control in WRITE, COBOL Nonnumeric Literals, COBOL Numeric Literals, COBOL PICTURE Clause (PIC), COBOL PIC 9 for digits, COBOL PIC X for alphanumeric, COBOL PIC A for alphabetic, COBOL PIC S for sign, COBOL PIC V for implied decimal, COBOL PIC P for scaling position, COBOL JUSTIFIED RIGHT Clause in PIC, COBOL BLANK WHEN ZERO Clause, COBOL ZERO SUPPRESSION, COBOL SIGN LEADING SEPARATE, COBOL SIGN TRAILING SEPARATE, COBOL USING in PROCEDURE DIVISION, COBOL GIVING/RETURNING in CALL, COBOL CANCEL Program, COBOL LINKAGE SECTION Parameters, COBOL EXTERNAL Name Clause, COBOL GLOBAL Clause for Data, COBOL COMMON Data, COBOL INITIAL Clause on Programs, COBOL IDENTIFICATION DIVISION PROGRAM-ID, COBOL AUTHOR Paragraph, COBOL INSTALLATION Paragraph, COBOL DATE-WRITTEN Paragraph, COBOL DATE-COMPILED Paragraph, COBOL SECURITY Paragraph, COBOL REMARKS Paragraph (Obsolete), COBOL Class Condition Checks, COBOL Condition-Names (88 Level), COBOL LEVEL 88 Definition, COBOL SET condition-name TO TRUE, COBOL SET condition-name TO FALSE, COBOL SET variable TO value, COBOL SET ... UP/DOWN BY value (for indexes), COBOL ACCEPT FROM DATE, COBOL ACCEPT FROM DAY, COBOL ACCEPT FROM DAY-OF-WEEK, COBOL ACCEPT FROM TIME, COBOL ACCEPT FROM COMMAND-LINE (Extension, COBOL ACCEPT FROM ENVIRONMENT (Extension, COBOL DISPLAY UPON], [COBOL DISPLAY WITH NO ADVANCING, COBOL READY TRACE (Obsolete Debug feature), COBOL USE AFTER ERROR Declarative, COBOL USE AFTER EXCEPTION Declarative, COBOL USE AFTER STANDARD Declarative, COBOL EXIT PARAGRAPH Statement, COBOL EXIT Perform CYCLE, COBOL EXIT Perform Loop
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