Cobol...approaching 50 years old....

[I-75]

Before Linux, before Microsoft and before Unix...there was Cobol.


"Cobol hits 50 and keeps counting

It is 50 years old this year, but Cobol is still a key player in behind-the-scenes business software"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/09/cobol-internet-programming

[samjh]

Probably the most overlooked programming language ever. And one that's not dying without a very long, tiring fight. :)

In the beginning, The Programmer said, "Let there be a business programming language".

And there was COBOL.

And The Programmer saw it was overly verbose.

(Yes, that's of my own making. Yes, it is a bad joke.)

[Icehuck]

Probably the most overlooked programming language ever. And one that's not dying without a very long, tiring fight. :)



Unfortunately, it just won't die.

[lisati]

I learned some COBOL many years ago, and never really liked it too much - too verbose, for one thing. I'd rather have something concise like
mvc outputname,itemname than
move itemname to outputname

[measekite]

I learned some COBOL many years ago, and never really liked it too much - too verbose, for one thing. I'd rather have something concise like
mvc outputname,itemname than
move itemname to outputname

But in the second example all you need to know is English.

[lisati]

But in the second example all you need to know is English.

True: but have you ever tried writing a system utility (e.g. to handle "file not found" errors without the OS going berserk) in COBOL? What precious little sanity I've somehow managed to retain over the years would quickly go on vacation.

[RiceMonster]

Unfortunately, it just won't die.

Yep. On first glance you may think "hey that looks easy", but once you actually use it, you'll realize just how tedious it is. Best way to sum it up: you're writing so much to do so little.

[Mehall]

+1

The ultimate High Level Language will be written entirely in native tongue and the compiler will understand what you want.

COBOL was before it's time with that.

EDIT: That was @what measekite said

[jflaker]

COBOL Hello World Program


000100 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
000200 PROGRAM-ID. HELLOWORLD.
000300
000400*
000500 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
000600 CONFIGURATION SECTION.
000700 SOURCE-COMPUTER. RM-COBOL.
000800 OBJECT-COMPUTER. RM-COBOL.
000900
001000 DATA DIVISION.
001100 FILE SECTION.
001200
100000 PROCEDURE DIVISION.
100100
100200 MAIN-LOGIC SECTION.
100300 BEGIN.
100400 DISPLAY " " LINE 1 POSITION 1 ERASE EOS.
100500 DISPLAY "Hello world!" LINE 15 POSITION 10.
100600 STOP RUN.
100700 MAIN-LOGIC-EXIT.
100800 EXIT.


Now here it is in C


#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
printf ("Hello World!\n");
}

[RiceMonster]

@jflaker: That's exactly what I'm talking about. Plus, I think the syntax is incredibly ugly and only makes the code harder to look at.

[jflaker]

@jflaker: That's exactly what I'm talking about. Plus, I think the syntax is incredibly ugly and only makes the code harder to look at.

I know one person who would LOVE to code in COBOL if they had the chance.....I program on the IBM iSeries (aka, AS/400) so it can do COBOL as well as C. I prefer not to have to learn COBOL, but will if I need to.

[samjh]

COBOL Hello World Program


000100 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
000200 PROGRAM-ID. HELLOWORLD.
000300
000400*
000500 ENVIRONMENT DIVISION.
000600 CONFIGURATION SECTION.
000700 SOURCE-COMPUTER. RM-COBOL.
000800 OBJECT-COMPUTER. RM-COBOL.
000900
001000 DATA DIVISION.
001100 FILE SECTION.
001200
100000 PROCEDURE DIVISION.
100100
100200 MAIN-LOGIC SECTION.
100300 BEGIN.
100400 DISPLAY " " LINE 1 POSITION 1 ERASE EOS.
100500 DISPLAY "Hello world!" LINE 15 POSITION 10.
100600 STOP RUN.
100700 MAIN-LOGIC-EXIT.
100800 EXIT.


Hmm. Isn't it:

000100 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
000200 PROGRAM-ID. hello.
000300 PROCEDURE DIVISION.
000400 DISPLAY "Hello World!".
000500 STOP RUN.

?

(Using OpenCOBOL.)

[MaxIBoy]

http://www.concretebadger.net/images/blog/editorials/killitwithfire.jpg

[measekite]

Yep. On first glance you may think "hey that looks easy", but once you actually use it, you'll realize just how tedious it is. Best way to sum it up: you're writing so much to do so little.

Sounds like that is true with C++ as opposed to other more modern languages.

[RiceMonster]

Sounds like that is true with C++ as opposed to other more modern languages.

Yeah, I really get what you mean, even though I love C++. COBOL is really not very flexible, though. I can't think of much it's good for other than processing financial reports.