Asked By
Ryan Banks
10 points
N/A
Posted on - 04/07/2012
I am an IT student and thinking of taking up COBOL programming. Â Is this something that I should look into? What are the practical uses of COBOL? Â Is it still in use today?Â
Information overview: COBOL programming today
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Hi,
COBOL was by far the most used language for years 1960-80, and remains in use in large companies (in 2010), particularly in financial institutions that have an extensive library of COBOL applications. Written at a time when bytes were expensive, and when 2000 was still far, these applications have raised fears the famous bug of 2000. Often, indeed, for reasons of economy of memory, computer services and programmers had coded the test year and 2 digit year instead of 4. So that the preparation of the Year 2000 cost the final huge human, material and financial. Although, however, banks, insurance and other financial institutions ran for a very long record of 10, 20 or 30 years (for example loans), but not always, however, take into account in testing the notion of date century.
Statistics made in 2005 by the Gartner Group shows that around 3/4 of business data are coded in COBOL programs and that 15% of the new programs are expected to be in this same language
COBOL can perform accounting treatments because of its fixed-point arithmetic capabilities, especially for batch processes where it has excellent performance, provided that the calculations are very basic (which is the case of accounting treatments). But even if the evolution of COBOL have today with some of the tools provided by modern languages ​​(recursion, dynamic allocation, objects, etc…), its use remains confined to management applications.
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Thank you.
Information overview: COBOL programming today
COBOL stands for Common Business Oriented Language. It was the first widely-used high-level programming language intended for business applications. Programs written in COBOL are generally viewed as being outdated though the language has been updated over the years. Currently, despite the increasing popularity of more modern programming languages like C++, .NET, and Java, the majority of business applications such as payroll and accounting applications still use COBOL.
COBOL came from the pioneering work of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper back in the 1940s. She felt the significance of a programming language that resembled natural English, a kind of programming language that can easily be read and written.
In years before the year 2000, a lot of COBOL programs needed change to adapt to the new century and the demand for programmers with COBOL skills were high during that time to get the legacy code ready for Y2K. After the turn of the century, many schools stopped teaching COBOL because the demand for COBOL programmers was no longer as great as before.
Today and to the surprise of many, this programming language is being taught again in universities but this time to support the DevOps movement which necessitates employees to have the skills for both system and development.
