COBOL, from Common Business Oriented Language, is a programming language designed for business data processing, first specified in 1959 by a committee convened under the US Department of Defense called CODASYL. Its design drew heavily on FLOW MATIC, an earlier English like language developed by Grace Hopper's team, and Hopper was an influential advocate throughout COBOL's development for making business programs readable by non programmers and portable across different computers. Despite predictions of its retirement for decades, COBOL code still runs a large share of the world's banking, insurance and government payroll systems.
Facts
First Released SignificanceThe dominant language of business data processing for decades, still running much of the world's banking and government infrastructure. 1 COBOL
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In Field
Source The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital RevolutionWalter Isaacson
Influenced
Influenced By
Grace Hopper, Pioneers COBOL was designed by a CODASYL committee, not by Hopper alone, but its design drew heavily on her earlier FLOW MATIC language and she was an influential advocate throughout its development.
Source The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital RevolutionWalter Isaacson
Sources
1. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
Walter Isaacson, Simon and Schuster, 2014
Wikipedia: COBOL
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
COBOL is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use.
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