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COBOL
COmmon Business Oriented Language

• general
• history
• Hello World
• structure
• further reading: books on COBOL

general

    nature: procedural language

    history: COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) was created in May 1959 by the Short Range Committee of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for business programming. The CODASYL committee (COnference on DAta SYstems Languages) worked from May 1959 to April 1960. Official ANSI standards included COBOL-68 (1968), COBOL-74 (1974), COBOL-85 (1985), and COBOL-2002 (2002). COBOL 97 (1997) introduced an object oriented version of COBOL. COBOL programs are divided into four divisions: identification, environment, data, and procedure. The divisions are further divided into sections. Introduced the RECORD data structure. Emphasized a verbose style intended to make it easy for business managers to read programs. Admiral Grace Hopper is recognized as the major contributor to the original COBOl language and as the inventor of compilers.

    ANSI version of COBOL defined in 1968.

Hello World example

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAN-ID. HelloWorld.
AUTHOR. Milo.

ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.

DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.
WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
LINKAGE SECTION.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
DISPLAY "Hello World".
STOP RUN.

structure

    format: columns

    basic parts: 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.

further reading: books:

Advanced ANSI COBOL With Structured Programming: For VS COBOL II and Microsoft Micro Focus COBOL; 2nd edition; by Gary Deward Brown; John Wiley & Sons; January 1992; ISBN 0471547867; paperback; 528 pages; $49.99

Java for the Cobol Programmer (Advances in Object Technology, 22); by E. Reed Doke and Bill C. Hardgrave; Cambridge University Press; August 1999; ISBN 0521658926; Paperback; 360 pages; includes CD-ROM; $44.95

Java for Cobol Programmers; by John C. Byrne and John Byme; Charles River Media; February 2000; ISBN 1886801843; Paperback; 452 pages; includes CD-ROM; $49.95

    C for Cobol Programmers: A Business Approach; by Jim Gearing; Carter Shanklin (Editor); Addison-Wesley Pub Co; August 1995; ISBN 0805316604; Paperback; $37.95

    Teach Yourself Cobol in 21 Days, 2nd Edition; by Mo Budlong; Sams; ISBN 0-672-31137-2; Paperback; 1,056 pages; $39.99; out of print by sometimes available used

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