You know a programming language? I know,that's not COBOL!

       If you already know a programming language, and that language isn’t COBOL, chances are that language is Java, C or C++. You will find COBOL a much different programming language than those – sometimes those differences are a good thing and sometimes they aren’t. The thing to remember about COBOL is this – it was designed to solve business problems. 

It was designed to do that in the 1950s. COBOL was the first programming language to become standardized such that a COBOL program written on computer “A” made by company “X” would be able to be compiled and executed on computer “B” made by company “Y”. This may not seem like such a big deal today, but it was a radical departure from all programming languages that came before it and even many that came after it. The name “COBOL” actually says it all – COBOL is an acronym that stands for “COmmon Business Oriented Language”. Note the fact that the word “common” comes before all others. The word “business” is a close second. Therein lies the key to COBOL’s success.