cobol

COBOL
    n 1: common business-oriented language
    

Language \Lan"guage\, n. [OE. langage, F. langage, fr. L. lingua
   the tongue, hence speech, language; akin to E. tongue. See
   {Tongue}, cf. {Lingual}.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. Any means of conveying or communicating ideas;
      specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by the
      voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the
      organs of the throat and mouth.
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   Note: Language consists in the oral utterance of sounds which
         usage has made the representatives of ideas. When two
         or more persons customarily annex the same sounds to
         the same ideas, the expression of these sounds by one
         person communicates his ideas to another. This is the
         primary sense of language, the use of which is to
         communicate the thoughts of one person to another
         through the organs of hearing. Articulate sounds are
         represented to the eye by letters, marks, or
         characters, which form words.
         [1913 Webster]

   2. The expression of ideas by writing, or any other
      instrumentality.
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   3. The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas,
      peculiar to a particular nation.
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   4. The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an
      individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style.
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            Others for language all their care express. --Pope.
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   5. The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man
      express their feelings or their wants.
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   6. The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of
      ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers.
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            There was . . . language in their very gesture.
                                                  --Shak.
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   7. The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or
      department of knowledge; as, medical language; the
      language of chemistry or theology.
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   8. A race, as distinguished by its speech. [R.]
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            All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell
            down and worshiped the golden image.  --Dan. iii. 7.
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   9. Any system of symbols created for the purpose of
      communicating ideas, emotions, commands, etc., between
      sentient agents.
      [PJC]

   10. Specifically: (computers) Any set of symbols and the
       rules for combining them which are used to specify to a
       computer the actions that it is to take; also referred to
       as a {computer lanugage} or {programming language}; as,
       JAVA is a new and flexible high-level language which has
       achieved popularity very rapidly.
       [PJC]

   Note: Computer languages are classed a low-level if each
         instruction specifies only one operation of the
         computer, or high-level if each instruction may specify
         a complex combination of operations. {Machine language}
         and {assembly language} are low-level computer
         languages. {FORTRAN}, {COBOL} and {C} are high-level
         computer languages. Other computer languages, such as
         JAVA, allow even more complex combinations of low-level
         operations to be performed with a single command. Many
         programs, such as databases, are supplied with special
         languages adapted to manipulate the objects of concern
         for that specific program. These are also high-level
         languages.
         [PJC]

   {Language master}, a teacher of languages. [Obs.]

   Syn: Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction;
        discourse; conversation; talk.

   Usage: {Language}, {Speech}, {Tongue}, {Idiom}, {Dialect}.
          Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended
          use, any mode of conveying ideas; speech is the
          language of articulate sounds; tongue is the
          Anglo-Saxon term for language, esp. for spoken
          language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the
          forms of construction peculiar to a particular
          language; dialects are varieties of expression which
          spring up in different parts of a country among people
          speaking substantially the same language.
          [1913 Webster]
    

higher programming language \higher programming language\ n.
   (Computers)
   A computer programming language with an instruction set
   allowing one instruction to code for several assembly
   language instructions.

   Note: The aggregation of several assembly-language
         instructions into one instruction allows much greater
         efficiency in writing computer programs. Most programs
         are now written in some higher programming language,
         such as {BASIC}, {FORTRAN}, {COBOL}, {C}, {C++},
         {PROLOG}, or {JAVA}.
         [PJC]
    

COBOL
 /koh'bol/, n.

   [COmmon Business-Oriented Language] (Synonymous with {evil}.) A weak,
   verbose, and flabby language used by {code grinder}s to do boring
   mindless things on {dinosaur} mainframes. Hackers believe that all
   COBOL programmers are {suit}s or {code grinder}s, and no
   self-respecting hacker will ever admit to having learned the language.
   Its very name is seldom uttered without ritual expressions of disgust
   or horror. One popular one is Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous observation
   that "The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should,
   therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense." (from Selected Writings
   on Computing: A Personal Perspective) See also {fear and loathing},
   {software rot}.
    

COmmon Business Oriented Language
COBOL

   <language, business> /koh'bol/ (COBOL) A programming language
   for simple computations on large amounts of data, designed by
   the {CODASYL} Committee in April 1960.  COBOL's {natural
   language} style is intended to be largely self-documenting.
   It introduced the {record} structure.

   COBOL was probably the most widely used programming language
   during the 1960s and 1970s.  Many of the major programs that
   required repair or replacement due to {Year 2000} {software
   rot} issues were originally written in COBOL, and this was
   responsible for a short-lived increased demand for COBOL
   programmers.  Even in 2002 though, new COBOL programs are
   still being written in some organisations and many old COBOL
   programs are still running in {dinosaur} shops.

   Major revisions in 1968 (ANS X3.23-1968), 1974 (ANS
   X3.23-1974) and 1985.

   Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.cobol.

   ["Initial Specifications for a Common Business Oriented
   Language" DoD, US GPO, Apr 1960].

   (2002-02-21)
    

COBOL
       COmmon Business Orientated Language