COBOL

Use the mouse wheel or two fingers (on touchscreens) to zoom in and out of the map.

Export map as:

Research this topic

Explore the main themes, entities and connections around COBOL. Start with the topic map, then use the sections below for research and deeper semantic analysis.

Explore this topic

Start with a few of the strongest sections from the source topic. These are research directions, not a list of keywords you must use.

History and specification

Programming languages were proliferating Mary K. Hawes Burroughs Corporation University of Pennsylvania Jean Sammet

94 related topics

Legacy

United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform United States Department of Agriculture Department of Homeland Security Department of Health and Human Services United States Department of Justice

22 related topics

Reception

Edsger Dijkstra Letter to the editor Communications of the ACM Unstructured Spaghetti code

20 related topics

Features

Keywords Lexical items Files Character sets Variables

15 related topics

Key facts & relationships

High-confidence facts extracted from structured source data. Use them as anchors for further research.

Designed by: Howard Bromberg, Norman Discount, Vernon Reeves, Jean E. Sammet, William Selden, Gertrude Tierney, with indirect influence from Grace Hopper
Developers: CODASYL, ANSI, ISO/IEC
Filename extensions: .cbl, .cob, .cpy
First appeared: 1960; 66 years ago (1960)
Paradigm: Procedural, imperative, object-oriented, generic
Stable release: ISO/IEC 1989:2023 / 2023

Topics to explore

Browse the full topic structure. Each item opens a new analysis centered on that subject.

Overview

Compiled Compiled language
Computer programming language
Imperative Imperative programming
Procedural Procedural programming
Object-oriented programming
Mainframe computers Mainframe computer
Batch Batch processing
Transaction processing
CODASYL
FLOW-MATIC
Grace Hopper
US Department of Defense
Portable Software portability
Standardized
Structured programming
ISO
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
Prose
Reserved words Reserved word
Standard library
Procedures section COBOL
Metalanguage
Classes Class (programming)
Interfaces Interface (object-oriented programming)
Methods Method (computer programming)
Polymorphism Polymorphism (computer science)
Generic programming
Hide Member visibility
PROPERTY Property (programming)
Method overloading

History and specification

Programming languages were proliferating Timeline of programming languages
Mary K. Hawes
Burroughs Corporation
University of Pennsylvania
Jean Sammet
Saul Gorn
Department of Defense United States Department of Defense
The Pentagon
ALGOL 58
FORTRAN
Steering committee
Betty Holberton
IBM
Minneapolis-Honeywell Honeywell
RCA RCA Corporation
Sperry Rand
Sylvania Electric Products
U.S. Air Force US Air Force
David Taylor Model Basin
National Bureau of Standards
Joseph Wegstein
AIMACO
COMTRAN
Bob Bemer
GO TOs GO TO
Design by committee
Boolean expressions Boolean expression
Formulas Formula
PL/I
Interactivity

Features

Keywords Keyword (computer programming)
Lexical items
Files Computer files
Character sets
Variables Variable (computer science)
Statements Statement (computer science)
Keypunch machines Keypunch machine
Punched cards Punched card
Static variables Static variable
Automatic variables Automatic variable
"Hello, World!" program
The C Programming Language
JCL Job Control Language
Hercules emulator
MVS

Reception

Edsger Dijkstra
Letter to the editor
Communications of the ACM
Unstructured Unstructured programming
Spaghetti code
Modular programming
Single-entry single-exit
CIO Chief Information Officer
Travelers Insurance St. Paul Travelers
The Jargon File
Self-documenting
Richard Conway Richard W. Conway
David Gries
Assembler Assembler language
Information systems
Java Java (Programming language)
Micro Focus
Pascal Pascal (programming language)
Database management systems
Include directives Include directive

Advanced semantic analysis

Deeper signals for content research, entity SEO and topical coverage. The plain-language headings explain what each technical view is useful for.

Map overview Semantic statistics

Nodes228

Edges227

Triples212

Avg. degree1.99

Density0.008772

Components1

How this topic connects Entity context

See the strongest relationship patterns around the current topic before diving into the raw triples.

COBOL

Top relations

related to Legacy · 29

COBOL → Agriculture, As, Department, DHS, Gartner Group, Government Reform, Health, HHS, Homeland Security, Human Services, In, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, Justice, NonStop OS, OpenVMS, OS, Oversight, Testimony, Treasury

related to COBOL-85 · 16

COBOL → Brophy, COBOL-74, COBOL-80, Data Processing Management Association, DPMA, During, Fewer, In January, In June, Joseph, Later, Mr, Other, Senior Vice-president, The, Travelers Insurance

related to Hello, world · 15

COBOL → DATA DIVISION, Hello, Hercules, In, Jay Moseley, JCL, July, Linux, MVS, Programming Language, System/370 Hercules, The, The JCL, When, World

related to COBOL-68 · 11

COBOL → America Standards Institute, American National Standard, ANS, ANSI, August, Efforts, In, ISO, This, United States, USA Standard COBOL X3

related to Compatibility issues · 11

COBOL → ANSI COBOL Committee, As, Brophy, CIO, COBOL-85, However, Joseph, On, One, This, Travelers Insurance

related to Syntax · 11

COBOL → Each COBOL, English-like, For, Hello, Literals, More, Separators, Some, They, To, Words

related to COBOL-61 to COBOL-65 · 10

COBOL → ALGOL's, By, COBOL's, Early COBOL, General Electric's Charles Katz, I/O, It, Many, March, US Navy

related to External links · 9

COBOL → Amendment, August, COBOL Language Standard, COBOL-85, COBOLStandard, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG4, January, The Open Group, Wayback Machine

related to Concerns about the design process · 8

COBOL → COBOL-85, Doubts, Howard Bromberg, However, Jean Sammet, Jerome Garfunkel, Short-term, To

related to Influences on other languages · 8

COBOL → COBOL's, Explicit, Fortran's, Its, Pascal, Pascal's, PICTUREdata, PL/I

Important terminology Word statistics

Use these terms to understand the vocabulary surrounding the topic, not as a checklist for keyword stuffing.

Important terminology

data committee language programming used code standard languages statements programs features procedure one new program would example use systems control

Entity relationships Subject–Predicate–Object triples

Subject	Predicate	Object	Confidence	Src
COBOL	Designed by	Howard Bromberg, Norman Discount, Vernon Reeves, Jean E. Sammet, William Selden, Gertrude Tierney, with indirect influence from Grace Hopper	1.00	infobox
COBOL	Developers	CODASYL, ANSI, ISO/IEC	1.00	infobox
COBOL	Filename extensions	.cbl, .cob, .cpy	1.00	infobox
COBOL	First appeared	1960; 66 years ago (1960)	1.00	infobox
COBOL	Paradigm	Procedural, imperative, object-oriented, generic	1.00	infobox
COBOL	Stable release	ISO/IEC 1989:2023 / 2023	1.00	infobox
COBOL	Typing discipline	Weak, static	1.00	infobox
COBOL	is a	industry language and is not the property of any company or group of companies	0.90	text
COBOL	is a	difficult language to write a compiler for	0.90	text
new inter-program communication	instance of	including changes	0.80	text
debugging	instance of	including changes	0.80	text
and file merging facilities	instance of	including changes	0.80	text

Related concept clusters Concept neighborhoods

These clusters group vocabulary that occurs around closely connected concepts in the source material.

Connections between topic areas Semantic bridges

Bridges can reveal useful research angles that are easy to miss in a flat list of related terms.

Min side: 3