* * * * Merkling Code Examples - COBOL * * * *
COBOL is a high-level programming language first developed by the CODASYL Committee in 1960. Since then, responsibility for developing new COBOL standards has been assumed by the International Standards Organization (ISO).
The standard that is most commonly in use today is COBOL-2002, upon which IBM's Enterprise COBOL is built. This version is the defacto standard in the American corporate and governement world. It includes new features that address the modern interconnected society, such as object oriented functions, XML parsing and translation, and built-in database connectivity.
The word COBOL is an acronym that stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language. As the the expanded acronym indicates, COBOL is designed for developing business, typically dataset-oriented, applications. It was not designed for writing systems programs. For over five decades COBOL has been the dominant programming language in the business computing domain. In that time it has seen challenges from a number of other languages such as PL/I, Algol68, Pascal, Modula, Ada, C, C++, and Java. None have yet replaced COBOL in the area that it was designed for. There are currently more active, employed COBOL programmers in the corporate world than all other programmer types combined.
One reason for COBOL's dominance can be related to the market for software applications. The majority of COBOL applications are created for large business, government, and educational enterprises. They typically cost many millions of dollars to implement and $500,000 or more to purchase. There are usually only a few customers (1-2,000). Software applications in other languages usually cost just as much to develop, but only $50-$500 to purchase, so there are millions of customers. Most COBOL applications run on the enterprises' huge mainframe computers, while the other applications run on small servers and on your desktop computer. Hence, the COBOL applications are "invisible", while you see and work with the other apps all day long.
It has been stated in multiple studies that 80% of all business transactions are processed via mainframe COBOL applications. That is true, even today in our internet-connected world, because most of the data entry done on our smartphone, laptop, or desktop computer is just that - data entry. Those local devices simply gather the data and pass it to the back-office COBOL mainframe applications for processing. When complete, the answer is sent back to the local device.
Because it is unlikely that COBOL will disappear from corporate America any time soon, I am going to share some of the cool, nifty, sneaky things I have learned about working in COBOL for anyone who can take advantage of them. You may be a COBOL newby (being dragged kicking and screaming into this world) or a 50-year COBOL veteran. If I can share one thing with you to make your job easier, then this web page is worth the effort.
By the way, if you would like an interesting read on why COBOL will not only survive, but thrive, in the 21st century, here is a good article on HackerRank.com.
| Program Name | Description | Purpose/Constructs | View/Dwnld |
|---|---|---|---|
| DMUDOW | Day-of-week utility |
|
 |