Modern Mainframe Development

Chapter 4. The COBOL Language

COBOL is the standard language for mainframe application development. It has the types of features that are important for business use cases, such as handling large-scale batch and transaction processing jobs.

The COBOL language has over 350 commands—and many of these you will not need to know about. This is why we’ll cover a limited number in this book. But this should not imply that you will be at a disadvantage. We will focus on the core commands you need to know for real-world applications.

COBOL’s Background, in Brief

COBOL is one of the oldest computer languages. Yet it has remained robust over the years and remains pivotal for business computing.

The roots of the language go back to the late 1950s, when a variety of computer languages emerged. Many of these languages were complex. This meant development was time-consuming and expensive.

A standard language was needed for data processing. To make this happen, the US Department of Defense joined with a group of computer companies—including IBM, Burroughs Corporation, Honeywell, and RCA—as well as academics and customers to form the Conference on Data Systems Languages (CODASYL) committee. Such committees have been essential for the evolution of the language.

Note

CODASYL looked at the FLOW-MATIC language as a model for COBOL. Legendary computer pioneer Grace Hopper created FLOW-MATIC, the first language to use English-like commands for data processing and to be used for early mainframe systems, ...