from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
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)