Cobol revived half a century after his birth. Has just been updated with Visual Cobol. Born in 1960, COBOL was the first computer language designed for businesses. When there is a need to develop a new software application, one of the first critical decisions referred to the programming language being used.
And it's not an easy decision. There is nothing less than almost a thousand different languages (according to Wikipedia, 769, plus a few dozen options, extinct or simply forgotten). For comparison, the number of languages spoken is around 6,900 people, according to Ethnologue, but in alarming decline.
Linguists believe that most optimistic end of the century will be half, as the pessimists, just be 600. The names of some computer languages are even more familiar than humans. Has anyone heard of Basic or Java, but none of Bikya, speech-language-speaking person or Cameroon. It is true that other computer languages are salads acronym SNUSP, Occam-Pi, Not Quite C.
.. And one is that the mere mention, let alone its syntax-denotes a certain level of freakismo. For example, an Anglo invention called SPL (Shakespeare Programing Language), which is characterized by managing source code "beautiful." It seems the text of a play right out of the pen of William himself.
But most commercial work is carried out using a handful of languages, established as standards. In a time now have proliferated those whose name begins with "Visual ...": Visual Basic, Visual C, Visual Java, Visual Objects ... Interestingly, among them did not include any Visual Cobol. So far in announcing a new incarnation of this product (www.
microfocus. Com). New generations of Cobol programmers can consider an archaeological rarity, since its origin dates back to 1960. FOTR and Cobol was the first programming languages available in what was then the exclusive world of big machines. FOTR was addressed to the community of scientists and mathematicians, Cobol (Common Bussiness Oriented Language) was aimed at financial and business applications: payroll, actuarial, sales management and supply, for example.
These languages, and all that followed, were intended to simplify programming tasks. Until then, this was a slow, tedious and error-prone, since programmers had to write in the only dialect that the machine included: cryptic abbreviations or endless strings of numbers. He has spent half a century.
Dozens of new languages have been born and gone, but Cobol is still present, especially in the computer systems of large corporations. It is estimated that worldwide there are writings about 300,000 million lines of Cobol code. If we printed paper produced a mountain of more than 600 miles high.
Cobol programs are somehow present in 80% of enterprise systems. Manage cash registers, bank accounts, payroll multinationals, hospitals, logistics systems or simple cell phone calls. No economic activity of a certain size that do not rely on these applications. Just remember the wave of apprehension that sparked years ago the famous 2000 issue.
MET because the original Cobol, stingy with the limited memory available on the first team, had booked only two digits to save the year for all dates. To "turn the odometer" of years there was a risk that the "00" causes a computer chaos because no one knew for sure how many miscalculations execute programs to confuse 1900 with 2000.
That required a massive global campaign software review (and a new version of Cobol) before coming to the fateful day. In the end, disasters foretold, from aircraft to nuclear crashed out of control, they never occur. With such background it is understandable that one will think twice before retiring an application that works by replacing one written in modern languages, however great the advantages this offers.
The result is that many companies still base their core operations in code that was written long ago. Some of the authors and years are retired, while the new generation of Cobol programmers "several hundred thousand worldwide, these venerable programs are adapting to new needs: a GUI, Internet, storage in the cloud ...
For a language that some call obsolete while still writing year 5,000 million lines in Cobol, an activity for itself wanted the 500 languages in danger of extinction. 
And it's not an easy decision. There is nothing less than almost a thousand different languages (according to Wikipedia, 769, plus a few dozen options, extinct or simply forgotten). For comparison, the number of languages spoken is around 6,900 people, according to Ethnologue, but in alarming decline.
Linguists believe that most optimistic end of the century will be half, as the pessimists, just be 600. The names of some computer languages are even more familiar than humans. Has anyone heard of Basic or Java, but none of Bikya, speech-language-speaking person or Cameroon. It is true that other computer languages are salads acronym SNUSP, Occam-Pi, Not Quite C.
.. And one is that the mere mention, let alone its syntax-denotes a certain level of freakismo. For example, an Anglo invention called SPL (Shakespeare Programing Language), which is characterized by managing source code "beautiful." It seems the text of a play right out of the pen of William himself.
But most commercial work is carried out using a handful of languages, established as standards. In a time now have proliferated those whose name begins with "Visual ...": Visual Basic, Visual C, Visual Java, Visual Objects ... Interestingly, among them did not include any Visual Cobol. So far in announcing a new incarnation of this product (www.
microfocus. Com). New generations of Cobol programmers can consider an archaeological rarity, since its origin dates back to 1960. FOTR and Cobol was the first programming languages available in what was then the exclusive world of big machines. FOTR was addressed to the community of scientists and mathematicians, Cobol (Common Bussiness Oriented Language) was aimed at financial and business applications: payroll, actuarial, sales management and supply, for example.
These languages, and all that followed, were intended to simplify programming tasks. Until then, this was a slow, tedious and error-prone, since programmers had to write in the only dialect that the machine included: cryptic abbreviations or endless strings of numbers. He has spent half a century.
Dozens of new languages have been born and gone, but Cobol is still present, especially in the computer systems of large corporations. It is estimated that worldwide there are writings about 300,000 million lines of Cobol code. If we printed paper produced a mountain of more than 600 miles high.
Cobol programs are somehow present in 80% of enterprise systems. Manage cash registers, bank accounts, payroll multinationals, hospitals, logistics systems or simple cell phone calls. No economic activity of a certain size that do not rely on these applications. Just remember the wave of apprehension that sparked years ago the famous 2000 issue.
MET because the original Cobol, stingy with the limited memory available on the first team, had booked only two digits to save the year for all dates. To "turn the odometer" of years there was a risk that the "00" causes a computer chaos because no one knew for sure how many miscalculations execute programs to confuse 1900 with 2000.
That required a massive global campaign software review (and a new version of Cobol) before coming to the fateful day. In the end, disasters foretold, from aircraft to nuclear crashed out of control, they never occur. With such background it is understandable that one will think twice before retiring an application that works by replacing one written in modern languages, however great the advantages this offers.
The result is that many companies still base their core operations in code that was written long ago. Some of the authors and years are retired, while the new generation of Cobol programmers "several hundred thousand worldwide, these venerable programs are adapting to new needs: a GUI, Internet, storage in the cloud ...
For a language that some call obsolete while still writing year 5,000 million lines in Cobol, an activity for itself wanted the 500 languages in danger of extinction.
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