COBOL history

COBOL has a long history and with this it is by far the most full-grown popular programming language used today. The opponents of COBOL act like COBOL today is the same as COBOL in the sixties ...

One Beetle ....






The history of COBOL in a bird's-eye view:

.. is not like the other!

1959  The American Department of Defense (DOD) asked a group of specialists to develop a business language that met their demands. 
1960  First proposal for COBOL - COmmon Business Oriented Language -, named COBOL-60. 
1961  First COBOL compilers are getting used. 
1965  From this year the usage of COBOL starts to increase a lot. 
1968  The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) sets the first official COBOL standard: COBOL-68. 
1970  The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) makes ANSI's COBOL-68 an international standard. 
1974  The new COBOL-74 standard is set.  
1985  The new COBOL-85 standard is set.  
1989  Intrinsic functions are added to the standard. 
2002  The long awaited object oriented COBOL 2002 standard is set.  


(Last change on: 1-Oct-2003)