Concept in Definition ABC

If there is a language from programming that we can classify as a "survivor", this is, without a doubt, COBOL.

Born in 1959, it is no longer in common use, but specialists are still being trained and in demand in certain business sectors, such as banking, due to the huge amount of software to hold.

This practice, contrary to the logic As programs and systems are updated, it responds to the maxim of “If it works, do not touch it”, Especially in systems that are critical, meaning that any malfunction could cause serious problems.

I have not mentioned the banking sector because, and only as an example, but because it is where I know that a greater number of COBOL programs subsist than They are still maintained today, although it is not the only sector, also counting public administrations (among others) with a large cast of COBOL programs. In use.

These systems tend to be virtualized from old machines (for example, VAX systems running in virtual machines on modern x86-64 servers proliferate).

Such is the longevity of COBOL, that since its launch in 1959, there have been several revisions to the standard, the last of them in 2014.

The first of these revisions took place between 1961 and 1965 to add new functionalities, while the others were carried out in 1968 (adaptation to the ANSI standard -American National Standards Institute-), 1974, 1985, 1989 2002, and the one already mentioned from 2014.

To modernize it, it has even been endowed with the capacity for object-oriented programming, and a company that created programming tools has come to launch an environment that allows the development of video games using COBOL, plus a curious rarity than a tool that is used in practice, but that demonstrates the chameleonic adaptability of COBOL, which has allowed it to survive to this day.

The acronym COBOL stands for Common Business-Oriented Language, and as their name suggests, they refer to a universal language adapted to meet the objectives of companies.

Its birth must be framed in a time when computer systems were very diverse, which caused professionals who left a company to have to learn how the system of the new company to which they were going to work, almost from the base.

To make it easier for these professionals (programmers) to be productive practically from the very first day, this programming language gave them some common bases that they could use between different systems.

To take charge of the longevity of this language despite the years that it has already "passed from fashion”, They will allow me the license to say goodbye with a joke related:

Once upon a time there was a Cobol programmer who, tired of fixing problems related to the 2,000 effect, in 1999 decided to cryogenize.

"Well, you see, we are in the year 9,999 and, you know, we have problems with the 10,000 effect ..."

Photo: Fotolia - teguhjatipras