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Language peer sets for COBOL:
United States↑
United States/1960↑
Designed 1960 ↑
1960s languages ↑
Second generation↑
Early Cold War↑
Genus COBOL-60 ↑
Business Data Processing ↑
COBOL-60↑
COBOLs↑
Data processing ↑
COBOL-60/1960↑
COBOLs/1960↑
Data processing/1960↑
COBOL-60/United States↑
COBOLs/United States↑
Data processing/United States↑
Business Data Processing ↑
Business Data Processing/1960↑
Business Data Processing/us ↑

COBOL(ID:139/cob004)

COmmon Business Oriented Language 

alternate simple view
Country: United States
Designed 1960
Published: 1960
Genus: COBOL-60
Sammet category: Business Data Processing

for COmmon Business Oriented Language.

CODASYL Committee, Apr 1960.

Simple computations on large amounts of data. The most widely used programming language today.

The much-quoted jibes about verbosity are misguided: there was a very small subset of symbols - largely the simple arithmetic ones - which were "Englished", but the remainder were already Englished in (eg) FORTRAN, LISP and ALGOL. The natural language style was intended to make the programs largely self-documenting (pre-empting WEB);  the use of divisions pre-empted structured programming, and the use of the record structure pre-empted Pascal.

Funnily enough, the same people who objected to the English in COBOL objected to the baroque elegance of APL where all the English was replaced with numerical symbols, so one might conclude they just liked the status quo. Mercifully, the COBOL wars died out when the people who hated it turned out to hate ALGOL 68 even more.

"The question is, why is Cobol still in widespread use? The answer is, it does the job, it was conceived for business. Cobol is built around the concept of moving things around in storage. Most languages are built around a lower abstraction level and are more focused on algorithms. "
John Bradley, CEO, Liant Software;

People:
Structures:
Related languages
AIMACO → COBOL   Evolution of
APG-1 → COBOL   Influence
AUTOCODER III → COBOL   Influence
COMTRAN → COBOL   Evolution of
DETOC → COBOL   Compiled to
FACT → COBOL   Evolution of
FLOW-MATIC → COBOL   Evolution of
Hanford Mark II → COBOL   Influence
SURGE → COBOL   Influence
COBOL → Basic COBOL   Subset
COBOL → COBOL Narrator   Implementation
COBOL → COBOL-61   Evolution of
COBOL → COBRA   Preprocessor for
COBOL → Compact COBOL   Subset
COBOL → DETAB-X   Extension of
COBOL → DPL   Incorporated some features of
COBOL → GECOM   Evolution of
COBOL → ICT COBOL   Implementation
COBOL → IDS   Extension of
COBOL → LOBOC   Influence
COBOL → MCOBOL   Extension of
COBOL → METACOBOL   Implementation
COBOL → PL/I   Influence
COBOL → Required-COBOL   Subset
COBOL → SIMFO   Influence
COBOL → TABOL   Influence
COBOL → TALL   Target language for
References:
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  • Asch, Alfred. (1959) Asch, Alfred. 1959 July 29. Minutes of Committee Meeting on Data Systems Languages Held at Bureau of Standards, June 23-24. (Cited in Sammet 1978) Extract: Languages examined by CODASYL
          in Proceedings of the 1959 Computer Applications Symp (1959) Proceedings of the 1959 Computer Applications Symposium, Armour Research Foundation, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 29, 1959
  • Katz, Charles (1959) Katz, Charles "The international algebraic language and the future of programming" Extract: Introduction Extract: ALGOL and CODASYL Extract: Conclusion
          in Proceedings of the 1959 Computer Applications Symp (1959) Proceedings of the 1959 Computer Applications Symposium, Armour Research Foundation, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 29, 1959
  • [DOD] (1960) "Initial Specifications for a Common Business Oriented Language" DoD, US GPO, Apr 1960.
          in Proceedings of the 1959 Computer Applications Symp (1959) Proceedings of the 1959 Computer Applications Symposium, Armour Research Foundation, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 29, 1959
  • Jones, John L (1960) Jones, John L "A COBOL Processor for The Univac 1105" Extract: AIMACO and COBOL
          in [Proceedings] (1960) Proceedings of the 1960 Computer Applications Symposium, Armour Research Foundation, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois
  • Martin et al (1960) Martin, E. Wayne Jr.; Hall, Dale J. "Data Processing: Automation in Calculation" Review of Educational Research, Vol. 30, No. 5, The Methodology of Educational Research (Dec., 1960), 522-535. Abstract Extract: Compiler Systems
          in [Proceedings] (1960) Proceedings of the 1960 Computer Applications Symposium, Armour Research Foundation, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois
  • Martin et al (1960) Martin, E. Wayne Jr.; Hall, Dale J. "Data Processing: Automation in Calculation" Review of Educational Research, Vol. 30, No. 5, The Methodology of Educational Research (Dec., 1960), 522-535. Abstract Extract: Compiler Systems
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          in (1961) The Computer Journal 4(3) October 1961
  • IBM (1961) IBM "Powerful New Programming Aids Announced for IBM 1401 Computer" Extract: COBOL, Autocoder and IOCS
          in (1961) Computer and Automation May 1961
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          in Goodman (ed) (1961) Goodman, Richard (ed) "Annual Review in Automatic Programming" (2) 1961 Pergamon Press, Oxford
  • Sammet (1961) Sammet. Jean E. "General Views on COBOL" pp345
          in Goodman (ed) (1961) Goodman, Richard (ed) "Annual Review in Automatic Programming" (2) 1961 Pergamon Press, Oxford
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          in Goodman (ed) (1961) Goodman, Richard (ed) "Annual Review in Automatic Programming" (2) 1961 Pergamon Press, Oxford
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          in Goodman (ed) (1961) Goodman, Richard (ed) "Annual Review in Automatic Programming" (2) 1961 Pergamon Press, Oxford
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          in Goodman (ed) (1961) Goodman, Richard (ed) "Annual Review in Automatic Programming" (2) 1961 Pergamon Press, Oxford
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          in [Computer Bulletin] (1962) The Computer Bulletin June 1962
  • Clippinger, RF; (1962) Clippinger, RF; "Information algebra" Extract: COBOL, DETAB, IA and influences Extract: Basic concepts Extract: Property spaces Extract: Lines and functions of lines Extract: Areas and functions of areas Extract: Bundles and functions of bundles Extract: Glumps and functions of glumps
          in (1962) The Computer Journal 5(3) October 1962
  • Kilner, Daphne (1962) Kilner, Daphne "Automatic Programming Languages for Business and Science" Abstract Extract: Aims Extract: COBOL
          in (1962) The Computer Bulletin September 1962
  • McGee, William C. (1962) McGee, William C. "The property classification method of file design and processing" pp450-458 Abstract
          in [ACM] (1962) [ACM] CACM 5(08) August 1962
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          in [ACM] (1962) [ACM] CACM 5(05) May 1962
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          in [ACM] (1962) [ACM] CACM 5(05) May 1962
  • D'Agapeyeff, A.; Baecker, H. D.; and Gibbens, B. (1963) D'Agapeyeff, A.; Baecker, H. D.; and Gibbens, B. J. "Progress In Some Commercial Source Languages" pp277-298
          in Goodman (ed) (1963) Goodman, Richard (ed) "Annual Review in Automatic Programming" (3) 1963 Pergamon Press, Oxford
  • Golds, I. M.; (1964) Golds, I. M.; "Users' experience of COBOL" Abstract
          in (1964) The Computer Journal 7(2) July 1964
  • Rosen, Saul (1964) Rosen, Saul "Programming Systems and Languages: a historical Survey" (reprinted in Rosen, Saul (ed) Programming Systems & Languages. McGraw Hill, New York, 1967) Extract: Early UNIVAC languages
          in [AFIPS JCC 25] (1964) [AFIPS JCC 25] Proceedings of the 1964 Spring Joint Computer Conference SJCC 1964
  • Stoker, J. (1964) Stoker, J. W. review of Willey et al 1961
          in [ACR] (1964) ACM Computing Reviews 5(06) November-December 1964
  • Goldstein (1965) Goldstein, M. "Computer Languages" The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 72, No. 2, Part 2: Computers and Computing Feb., 1965 pp141-146 Extract: Languages scene
          in [ACR] (1964) ACM Computing Reviews 5(06) November-December 1964
  • Sammet, Jean E., (1967) Sammet, Jean E., "Roster of Programming Languages 1967"
          in (1967) Computers & Automation 16(6) June 1967
  • CODASYL Database Task Group, (1968) CODASYL Database Task Group, "COBOL extensions to handle data bases," (PB 177 682), Jan. 1968.
          in (1967) Computers & Automation 16(6) June 1967
  • King, P.J.H. (1969) King, P.J.H. "Systems analysis documentation: computer-aided data dictionary definition" Extract: BCL, COBOL, NEBULA
          in (1969) The Computer Journal 12(1) 1969
  • Rice, John K. and Rice, John R. (1969) Rice, John K. and Rice, John R. "Introduction to computer science" New York Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1969
          in (1969) The Computer Journal 12(1) 1969
  • Stock (1971) Stock, Karl F. "A listing of some programming languages and their users" in RZ-Informationen. Graz: Rechenzentrum Graz 1971 52 Abstract
          in (1969) The Computer Journal 12(1) 1969
  • Sammet, Jean E., (1972) Sammet, Jean E., "Programming languages: history and future"
          in [ACM] (1972) [ACM] CACM 15(06) (June 1972)
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          in (1972) Computers & Automation 21(6B), 30 Aug 1972
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          in (1974) ACM Computing Reviews 15(04) April 1974
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          in (1974) ACM Computing Reviews 15(04) April 1974
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          in (1974) ACM Computing Reviews 15(04) April 1974
  • (1976) The Higher Order Language Working Group (HOLWG) Working Paper on 23 exisitng programming languages
          in (1974) ACM Computing Reviews 15(04) April 1974
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          in (1977) Computer Languages 2(4)
  • Tucker, Allen B., JR. (1977) Tucker, Allen B., JR. Programming languages. McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1977
          in (1977) Computer Languages 2(4)
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          in [SIGPLAN] (1978) SIGPLAN Notices 13(11) Nov 1978
  • Sammet, Jean E. (1978) Sammet, Jean E. "The early history of COBOL" Abstract
          in [HOPL I] (1979) SIGPLAN Notices 14(04) April 1979 including The first ACM SIGPLAN conference on History of programming languages (HOPL) Los Angeles, CA, June 1-3, 1978
  • Pollack, S. (1980) Pollack, S. L. review of Sammet 1980 Abstract
          in (1980) ACM Computing Reviews 21(04) April 1980
  • Allen, F. E. (1981) Allen, F. E. "The history of language processor technology in IBM" pp535-548.
          in [IBM] (1981) IBM Journal of Research and Development, 25(5), September 1981 25th anniversary issue
  • Davis, John S. (1981) Davis, John S. "Ada -- A Suitable Replacement for Cobol?" US Army Institute for Research in Management Feb 1981 Abstract
          in [IBM] (1981) IBM Journal of Research and Development, 25(5), September 1981 25th anniversary issue
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          in [IBM] (1981) IBM Journal of Research and Development, 25(5), September 1981 25th anniversary issue
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          in [IBM] (1981) IBM Journal of Research and Development, 25(5), September 1981 25th anniversary issue
  • Allen, F. (1982) Allen, F. and Schwartz, J. review of Sammet and Lee HOPL conference end banquet excerpts Abstract
          in (1982) ACM Computing Reviews March 1982
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          in (1982) ACM Computing Reviews March 1982
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          in (1982) ACM Computing Reviews March 1982
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          in (1982) ACM Computing Reviews March 1982
  • (1997) "The World's First COBOL Compilers" By Harold "Bud" Lawson and Howard Bromberg Computer History Museum Lecture Series Gates Computer Science Building, Stanford University June 12, 1997 Online copy
          in (1982) ACM Computing Reviews March 1982
  • Bill C. Hardgrave, E. Reed Doke (2000) Bill C. Hardgrave, E. Reed Doke "Cobol in an Object-Oriented World: A Learning Perspective" Abstract
          in (2000) IEEE Software 17(2) March/April 2000
  • Round table discussion: (2000) Round table discussion: "In Cobol's Defense" 17(2) March/April 2000 pp. 70-72,75
          in (2000) IEEE Software 17(2) March/April 2000
  • (2002) Library of Congress Subject Headings C25
          in (2000) IEEE Software 17(2) March/April 2000
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