Acronym for common business oriented language. Developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, COBOL is the second-oldest high-level programming language (FORTRAN is the oldest). It is particularly popular for business applications that run on large computers.
COBOL is a wordy language; programs written in COBOL tend to be much longer than the same programs written in other languages. This can be annoying when you program in COBOL, but the wordiness makes it easy to understand programs because everything is spelled out. Although disparaged by many programmers for being outdated, COBOL is still the most widely used programming language in the world.
Flexus COBOL page A page with several resources including links to COBOL software, some available for download, Web links, and tools.
The COBOL Foundation home page The COBOL Foundation distributes information on the COBOL industry to program developer organizations and individuals. This home page reflects those efforts by providing several Web related links to COBOL reports, standards, and education.
