URL: http://pita.microfocus.com/UserGroup_PC/speaker/jg.htm

Topic:COBOL

Year:Developed in 1959; revised several times since then

Summary Composer:Maria-Mirella V. Lie

Summary:COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) was developed in 1959 by CODASYL (Conference on Data Systems Languages). CODASYL is a group made up of representatives from user groups, academia, and computer manufacturers. They had two major objectives when creating COBOL. That is, they wanted portability and readability. With this, they meant that they wanted programs to run with minimum modification on different computer models/brands and easy readable language such as ordinary English sentences. Since 1959, there have been many revisions made on COBOL. Dr. Jerome Garfunkel, also known as "Mr. COBOL", is one of the foremost experts on COBOL and offers many seminars on the subject of this computing language.

Due to all revisions made by different manufacturers since its first formation by CODASYL, it was decided to create a standard if this language was to survive. Hence, the American National Standards Institute is now the present regulator of COBOL standards. Like CODASYL, ANSI is formed of academia, user groups, and computer manufacturers.

Bibliography:

Bruemmer, Hanson, and Corbitt. (1995). Charles Babbage Institute, Center for the History of Information Processing: Conference on Data Systems Languages Records, 1959-1987. [WWW document]. URL http://www.cbi.umn.edu/inv/codasyl.htm

COBOL Foundation (1995). COBOL Foundation. [WWW document]. URL a href="http://www.cobol.org/"> http://www.cobol.org/

Encyclopedia Britannica (1996). Computers: Programming Languages". [WWW document]. URL http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=macro/5001/46/15.html&bold=on&sw=cobol&DBase=Articles&hits=10&context=all&ParagraphType=1&indexremove=off#first_hit

IBM (1996). IBM Cobol Family. [WWW document] URL http://www.software.hosting.ibm.com/ad/cobol/cobol.htm

Jerome Garfunkel Associates (1995). Modern COBOL: Legacy Systems Management Seminar. URL http://pita.microfocus.com/UserGroup_PC/speaker/jg.htm