COBOL

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COBOL

• COmmon Business Oriented Language

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Background

• It was first developed in the year 1959 by a
  company called Conference on Data Systems
  Languages or the CODASYL led by Joe Wegstein of
  National Bureau of Standards (now National
  Institute of Standards and Technology). There
  have been different versions of the language
  since its advent.
• COBOL was developed under the auspices of the
  U.S. Department of Defense in cooperation with
  computer manufactures, users and universities.
  The initial specifications for COBOL were
  presented in a report of the executive committee
  of CODASYL committee in April of 1960.   It was
  designed to be a business problem oriented,
  machine independent and capable of continuous
  change and development.
• Since 1960, COBOL has undergone considerable
  updates and  improvements. It has emerged as the
  leading data processing language in the business
  world.  The standard language specification has
  three levels low, middle and high so that
  standard COBOL can be implemented on computers of
  varying sizes.

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Description

• The earliest version was COBOL -60.
• Later versions were called COBOL -61, COBOL -65,
  COBOL -68, COBOL -74, COBOL -85, and COBOL 2002.
• COBOL is a third-generation programming language.
  
• The COBOL 2002 includes support for object
  oriented programming.
• COBOL is used for commercial and business
  applications, such as data processing, etc.
• COBOL is similar to C in the way that thought
  they are trying to make a standard version,
  object oriented compilers are available too. Free
  compliers will not be existent in this language.

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Structure

• COBOL programs are divided into four divisions
• Identification Division Identifies the name of
  the program and the programmer.
• Environment Division Specification of hardware
  and files used.
• Data Division Declaration of constants,
  variables, data structures, and file formats.
• Procedure Division Executable source code.

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Language Progression
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Some characteristics that contribute to COBOL's
success

• COBOL is self-documenting. It contains such
  English-like structural elements as verbs,
  clauses, sentences, sections and divisions.
• COBOL is a simple language (no pointers, no user
  defined functions, no user defined types) with a
  limited scope of function. It encourages a simple
  straightforward programming style.
• COBOL is non-proprietary (portable)The COBOL
  standard does not belong to any particular
  vendor. The vendor independent ANSI COBOL
  committee legislates formal, non-vendor-specific
  syntax and semantic language standards.

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Design Goals

• Must look like simple English
• Must be easy to use, even if that means it will
  be less powerful
• Must broaden the base of computer users
• Must not be biased by current compiler problems

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Sample Program

• print multiple table of 2 on screen

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Sample Program

• get 2 value and use command add, subtract,
  multiply, divide

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Resource

• http//www.legacyj.com/cobol/cobol_history.html
• http//e-words.us/w/COBOL.html
• http//csdir.org/Programming/Languages/Cobol
• http//www.csis.ul.ie/cobol/Course/COBOLIntro.htm
• http//www.perlphpasp.com/cobol/indexo.html
• http//www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com
  mandviewArticleBasicarticleId266156pageNumber
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