This archive is aimed at preserving the programs and scripts from the early programming language COBOL.
COBOL: The Language That Powers Business Applications Worldwide
COBOL, which stands for Common Business Oriented Language, is a programming language that has been used for decades to write business software applications. Developed in the late 1950s, COBOL is still in active use today, with an estimated 200 billion lines of COBOL code in existence. In this article, we will explore the history, features, and current state of COBOL.
So far, The-COBOL-Archive has managed to preserve the following Cobol programs:
- Error Hello World
- Graphical Hello World
- Line Printer Hello World
- Omit Newline Hello World
- Standard Hello World
- Checkers
- Deal/Play Cards
- Fizz Buzz
- Magic Square (15 Puzzle Game)
- Minesweeper
- Pong
- Snake
- Tetris
- Tic Tac Toe
- Towers of Hanoi
- 99 Bottles Of Beer
Additionally, The COBOL Archive has preserved the Following Software; Written In COBOL:
- SMTP/POP3 Email Engine for COBOL
- Produced In 1999 by MarshallSoft Computing, Inc. Written for Windows 3.1 with an intel 80x86 processor.
- The COBOL Report Writer
- Produced In 2002 by Michael Coughlan. Written to calculate a salesman's Commision and Salary
- Cisp (COBOL Lisp Intrepreter)
- Produced In 2017 By Lauryn Brown . Written to Interpret Lisp Programs using COBOL
COBOL was first introduced in 1959 by a team of programmers led by Grace Hopper. Its development was motivated by the need for a programming language that could be used across multiple manufacturers' hardware in order to streamline business application development. COBOL was designed to be easily readable and understandable by non-technical business users, as well as to be easily maintainable and optimized for large-scale batch processing.
COBOL was widely adopted by the business world, and its popularity surged in the 1970s and 1980s. During this time, COBOL was the de facto standard for business application development, and many large corporations built their entire IT infrastructures on COBOL-based applications. However, as newer programming languages such as C++, Java, and Python emerged, COBOL's popularity began to wane.
COBOL is a high-level programming language that is primarily used for business application development. COBOL programs are designed to execute in batch-processing mode, which means that data is processed in large batches rather than in real-time. This mode of processing is well-suited for applications that require handling large volumes of data, such as those used in finance, insurance, and government.
One of the key features of COBOL is its ability to allow programmers to use natural language-style syntax. This makes it easy for non-technical business users to understand the code and collaborate with developers on business application development projects. COBOL also provides a rich set of built-in functions and features, such as file handling, string manipulation, and date/time operations.
Despite its age, COBOL is still widely used in industries such as banking, finance, and government. Many of these organizations rely on COBOL-based applications to handle mission-critical business processes, and migrating away from COBOL can be a difficult and expensive proposition. However, the demand for COBOL programmers has been declining for years, as younger developers tend to focus on newer programming languages. This has led to a shortage of skilled COBOL programmers, and many large organizations have had to hire retired or near-retirement age developers to maintain their existing COBOL-based applications.
Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of COBOL in maintaining critical business processes. In some cases, state governments have had to mobilize retired COBOL programmers to update their unemployment insurance systems in order to cope with the surge in claims caused by the pandemic.
- @matterofact
- Curating the program list For The COBOL Archive
- @TheBigGermanGuy
- Added the Extensive Information About COBOL And Wrote The Majority of this Readme
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