a computer language employing English words, used in business applications
also written Cobol
Origin of COBOL
co(mmon) b(usiness) o(riented) l(anguage)COBOL
CO·BOLWebster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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COBOL
noun
A programming language developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, widely used for business applications. It has some syntactic features that resemble English.
Origin of COBOL
Co(mmon) B(usiness-)O(riented) L(anguage)THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"COBOL." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL.
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COBOL. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL
A programming language developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s and used especially for business applications. It is closer to English than many other high-level languages, making it easier to learn.
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"COBOL." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL.
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COBOL. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL
Proper noun
- A programming language developed in the late 1950s especially for business applications.
Origin
Co(mmon) b(usiness-)o(riented) l(anguage).
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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"COBOL." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL.
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COBOL. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL
cobol - Computer Definition
(COmmon Business Oriented Language) A high-level programming language that has been the primary business application language for mainframes as well as for the variety of minicomputers that flourished throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It is a compiled language and one of the first high-level languages ever developed. Officially adopted in 1960, COBOL stemmed from FLOWMATIC, a language developed in the mid-1950s by Grace Murray Hopper (later Rear Admiral Hopper) for the UNIVAC I. COBOL is very wordy (see COBOL fingers). Although mathematical expressions can also be written like other programming languages (see example below), its verbose mode is very readable for a novice. For example, multiply hourly-rate by hours-worked giving gross-pay is self-explanatory. COBOL is structured into the following divisions: Division Name Contains IDENTIFICATION Program identification. ENVIRONMENT Types of computers used. DATA Buffers, constants, work areas. PROCEDURE The processing (program logic). The following COBOL example for an earlier IBM 370 mainframe converts a Fahrenheit number to Celsius. To keep the example simple, it performs the operation on the operator's terminal rather than a user terminal. IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. program-ID. example. ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. configuration section. SOURCE-COMPUTER. IBM-370. OBJECT-COMPUTER. IBM-370. DATA DIVISION. working-storage section. 77 FAHR picture 999. 77 CENT picture 999. PROCEDURE DIVISION. display 'Enter Fahrenheit ' upon console. accept FAHR from console. compute CENT = (FAHR- 32) * 5 / 9. display 'Celsius is ' CENT upon console. goback.
IBM COBOLs
In 1994, IBM dropped support of OS/VS COBOL, which conforms to ANSI 68 and ANSI 74 standards and limits a program's address space to 16 bits. IBM's VS COBOL II (1984) and COBOL/370 (1991) conform to ANSI 85 standards and provide 31-bit addressing, which allows programs to run "above the line." COBOL/370 is more compliant with AD/Cycle, has more string, math and date functions, including four-digit years, allows development through a PC window and provides enhanced runtime facilities.Computer Desktop Encyclopedia THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher. © 1981-2017 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved.
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"COBOL." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL.
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COBOL. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/COBOL
