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COBOL Celebrates 50 Years

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the cobol-is-for-old-people dept.

oranghutan writes "The language used to power most of the world's ATMs, COBOL, is turning 50. It also runs about 75 per cent of the world's business applications, so COBOL should be celebrated for making it to half a century. In cricketing terms, that's a good knock. The author says: 'COBOL's fate was decided during a meeting of the Short Range Committee, the organization responsible for submitting the first version of the language in 1959. The meeting was convened after a meeting at the Pentagon first laid down the guidelines for the language. Half a century later, Micro Focus published research which showed people still use COBOL at least 10 times throughout the course of an average working day in Australia. Only 18 per cent of those surveyed, however, had ever actually heard of COBOL.'"

4 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. For those of you still hanging on by kriston · · Score: 3, Informative

    For those of you still hanging on:
    http://www.amazon.com/C-COBOL-Programmers-Business-Approach/dp/0805316604/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253538164&sr=8-1

    --

    Kriston

  2. Re:75% of apps? Shaa, right! by duffbeer703 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Do you accept or make payment via credit card, check or ATM debit? Congratulations, you (indirectly) use COBOL.

    --
    Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
  3. Re:75% of apps? Shaa, right! by Archtech · · Score: 4, Informative

    "It also runs about 75 per cent of the world's business applications"

    Gee, I didn't know Windows Apps were coded in COBOL.

    They can be, using the excellent Microfocus COBOL or many other implementations.

    But actually, only a very few of the world's (important) business applications run on Windows. Seriously. Big heavy-duty transaction-processing apps run overwhelmingly on mainframes, because they just work.

    --
    I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
  4. Re:Happy 50th by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    000100 IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
    000200 PROGRAM-ID. CONGRATS.
    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 "Congratulations with your 50th birthday" LINE 15 POSITION 10.
    100600 STOP RUN.
    100700 MAIN-LOGIC-EXIT.
    100800 EXIT.