COBOL - Revision history

Jnc: /* External links */ +Exactly what is COBOL and why is COBOL still a widely used language in IT?

2024-01-14T16:34:23Z

‎External links: +Exactly what is COBOL and why is COBOL still a widely used language in IT?

Jnc: Minor tweaks

2024-01-12T14:54:15Z

Minor tweaks

Jnc: Make a bit less stubby

2024-01-11T12:25:58Z

Make a bit less stubby

Tor: Show what the acronym means

2013-03-18T09:55:26Z

Show what the acronym means

Tor: Add 'Hello World!' examples

2013-03-18T09:51:23Z

Add 'Hello World!' examples

Neozeed: New page: COBOL is primarily found on the mainframe environments, and related to business 'batch' processing. {{stub}} Category:Languages

2009-10-26T01:53:49Z

New page: COBOL is primarily found on the mainframe environments, and related to business 'batch' processing. {{stub}} Category:Languages

New page

COBOL is primarily found on the mainframe environments, and related to business 'batch' processing.

{{stub}}
[[Category:Languages]]

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 {{semi-stub}}
-==External links===
+==External links==
-* http://code.xmlgadgets.com/2012/03/28/cobol-hello-world-program/
+* [https://freedomafterthesharks.com/2016/06/27/exactly-what-is-cobol-and-why-is-cobol-still-a-widely-used-language-in-it/ Exactly what is COBOL and why is COBOL still a widely used language in IT?]
-* http://groups.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/cobol/hworld.html
+<!-- * http://code.xmlgadgets.com/2012/03/28/cobol-hello-world-program/ offline -->
 [[Category: Languages]]

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-'''COBOL''' (the acronym name stands for 'Common Business Oriented Language) is a [[programming language]] invented principally for use, as the name says, to build [[application]]s in business and administrative areas. It was created to improve [[portable|portability]] of such application from one vendor's machines to another, as it was at that time beginning to be recognized that [[software]] required a very large investment (even if it was not yet plain how ''long'' the lifetime of much software would be) - an observation that was not yet acute in an age when the cost of computing [[hardware]] was enormous.
+'''COBOL''' (the acronym name stands for 'Common Business Oriented Language) is a [[programming language]] invented principally for use, as the name says, to build [[application]]s in business and administrative areas. It was created to improve [[portable|portability]] of such application from one vendor's machines to another, as it was at that time beginning to be recognized that [[software]] required a very large investment (even if it was not yet plain how ''long'' the lifetime of much software would be) - an observation that was not yet acute, in an age when the cost of computing [[hardware]] was enormous.
-It is one of three programming language invented in the 1950s still in wide use today (albeit all much-modified from their original forms), along with [[FORTRAN]] and [[LISP]] - although in the cases of COBOL and FORTRAN, not a great deal of ''new'' applications are being written in them. COBOL is primarily found on the [[mainframe]] environments, and is used in business [[batch processing]].
+It is one of three programming language invented in the 1950s still in wide use today (albeit all much-modified from their original forms), along with [[FORTRAN]] and [[LISP]] - although in the cases of COBOL and FORTRAN, not a great deal of ''new'' applications are being written in them. COBOL is primarily found in [[mainframe]] environments, and is used in business [[batch processing]].
-It uses English-sounding [[syntax]] (which was supposedly easier for 'average' people), rather than the mathematical-based syntax of FORTRAN. The intent was also that COBOL [[program]]s would be easy to read, and self-documenting. As a result, though, COBOL programs are verbose.
+It uses English-sounding [[syntax]] (which was supposedly easier for 'average' people), rather than the mathematics-based syntax of FORTRAN. The intent was also that COBOL [[program]]s would be self-documenting, and easy to read. As a result, though, COBOL programs are verbose.
 A COBOL program contains four main 'divisions':
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 * procedure
-each of which may contain a fixed hierarchy of 'sections', 'paragraphs' and 'sentences'. As is perhaps understandable, given its intended problem domain, it is mostly focused on [[input/output]], and supports few [[type]]s. It has poor support for large-scale structuring, so large COBOL programs, although easy to read at a statement level, may be hard to understand at a high level.
+each of which may contain a fixed hierarchy of 'sections', 'paragraphs' and 'sentences'. As is perhaps understandable, given its intended problem domain, the [[semantics]] of the language is mostly focused on [[input/output]], and supports few [[type]]s. It has poor support for large-scale structuring, so large COBOL programs, although easy to read at a statement level, may be hard to understand at a high level.
 ==Examples==

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-'''C'''ommon '''B'''usiness '''O'''riented '''L'''anguage
+'''COBOL''' (the acronym name stands for 'Common Business Oriented Language) is a [[programming language]] invented principally for use, as the name says, to build [[application]]s in business and administrative areas. It was created to improve [[portable|portability]] of such application from one vendor's machines to another, as it was at that time beginning to be recognized that [[software]] required a very large investment (even if it was not yet plain how ''long'' the lifetime of much software would be) - an observation that was not yet acute in an age when the cost of computing [[hardware]] was enormous.
-COBOL is primarily found on the mainframe environments, and related to business 'batch' processing.
+It is one of three programming language invented in the 1950s still in wide use today (albeit all much-modified from their original forms), along with [[FORTRAN]] and [[LISP]] - although in the cases of COBOL and FORTRAN, not a great deal of ''new'' applications are being written in them. COBOL is primarily found on the [[mainframe]] environments, and is used in business [[batch processing]].
 Here's [[Hello World]] in COBOL.
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         EXIT.
-===References===
+{{semi-stub}}
 * http://code.xmlgadgets.com/2012/03/28/cobol-hello-world-program/
 * http://groups.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/cobol/hworld.html
-{{stub}}
+[[Category: Languages]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:55, 18 March 2013
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		+	'''C'''ommon '''B'''usiness '''O'''riented '''L'''anguage
		+
	COBOL is primarily found on the mainframe environments, and related to business 'batch' processing.		COBOL is primarily found on the mainframe environments, and related to business 'batch' processing.