The Future of the COBOL Programming Language

1
The Future of the COBOL Programming Language

• Karl Schenk
• University of Wisconsin-Platteville
• Department of Computer Science and Software
  Engineering

2
About Me

• Senior (Fifth Year)
• Majors
• Computer Science (CIS)
• Business Administration (CS)
• Related Jobs
• UW-Platteville OIT Lab Consultant
• John Deere Dubuque Works Part Time Student
  Information Technology

3
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• Ive coded in COBOL but never compiled
• 150-200 Billion Lines of COBOL
• Up to 2 billion Lines added each year
• Most COBOL is used at large corporations and by
  government

5
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• XML and COBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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What is COBOL?

• Common Business Oriented Language
• Procedural Language
• Third Generation Language
• Compiled Language
• Most often used on Mainframes but is on PCs too.

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What is COBOL?
8
What is COBOL?
9
What is COBOL?
10
What is COBOL?
11
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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COBOL Structure

• Hierarchical
• English-Like
• Add 1 to Counter Giving Counter
• 4 Divisions
• Identification, Environment, Data, and Procedure

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COBOL Structure

• Identification Division
• Program Name
• Other items like programmer and compile date
  should be comments
• Environment Division
• Describes the hardware the program is running on
• Briefly describes the data files

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COBOL Structure

• Data Division
• Defines all data
• Files and Working Storage
• Procedure Division
• Logic of the program
• Divided into Paragraphs

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COBOL Structure

• Code is restricted by columns
• 1-6 Line numbers
• 7 - Comment area
• 8-72 Margins A and B (code)
• 73-80 Identification and labels

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Cobol Structure Hello World
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. Program-Id.
Hello-World. ENVIRONMENT DIVISION. DATA
DIVISION. PROCEDURE DIVISION. 100-PARAGRAPH.
DISPLAY "Hello, world.". Stop Run.
17
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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COBOL History

• 1959 Department of Defense wanted a universal
  Business Application Language
• CODASYL was formed
• 11 Government and 15 Commercial attendees

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COBOL History

• COBOL-61
• ANSI/ISO Standards
• COBOL-65
• COBOL-74
• COBOL-85
• COBOL-2002
• Technical Reviews

20
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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COBOL-2002
Topic Brief Description
Margins A B Restrictions on data placed in these margins will no longer be requirements, only recommendations
Identification Division. Only paragraph permitted in this division will be the Identification Division.
Name Lengths Increased from 30 to 60 characters
Comments In-line comments will be allowed after a gt symbol
Arithmetic Operators Spaces will not be required around operators
Sort The SORT keyword can now be used on both tables and files
Deletion of Files A DELETE statement will allow deletion of an entire file with only one instruction.
22
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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Object Oriented COBOL

• A programming paradigm in which a program is
  viewed as a collection of discrete objects that
  are self-contained collections of data structures
  and routines of an object.
• Microsoft Computer Dictionary

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Object Oriented COBOL

• Requires 2 Programs
• Driver
• Trigger

Sample Program
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Object Oriented COBL Driver Program

• Registers the class
• Declares Object Reference data-items
• Creates an object from the class
• Accesses a method from the class
• Cleans up memory

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Object Oriented COBOLTrigger Program

• Inheritance is described in Identification Level
• Classes are listed
• Data in the classes is described
• Methods are declared
• Each has data and procedures

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Object Oriented COBOL

• Passing and returning variables done thorough
  COBOLs USING, GIVING, and RETURNING reserved
  words

Sample Program
28
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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XML and COBOL

• XML
• Markup Language
• Used to make complicated output for web pages
• Developed by World Wide Web Consortium
• Technical Review for COBOL support of XML

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XML and COBOL
Topic Brief Description
Select Statement Allows for the data type and access mode to be XML Also allows type of XML (DTD or Schema) to be specified, as well as version.
Data Division IDENTIFIED and ATTRIBUTE keywords are added to help and parse XML tags Vendors will most often supply utilities to easily convert most XML into COBOL standard XML
Procedure Division Changes to the Read, Write, Open, Close, Delete, Rewrite, and Start commands are made to allow XML to be accessed and modified.
31
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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Micro Foucus and Net Express

• Legacy System Development and Deployment
• Net Express
• Complete Development tool

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Micro Focus and Net Express

• Interfaces with Microsofts Visual Studio
• Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
• Allows for use of Web Forms and Win Forms
• Object Oriented and XML compatible
• Ability to use J, VB.net, etc. along with legacy
  code

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Micro Focus and Net Express
35
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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KOBOL

• theKompany.com
• Combines open source code into new, useful tools

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KOBOL

• IDE environment
• Allows for the creation of COBOL executables
• OO and XML compatible
• 59.95 per license!!!

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KOBOL
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Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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COBOL and Higher Education

• University of Wisconsin-Platteville
• Introductory course Computer Programming in
  COBOL
• 4 other classes
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Systems Design and Implementation
• CICS Application Programming
• Applications of Information Systems

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COBOL and Higher Education

• University of Wisconsin Madison
• No courses in COBOL
• University of Iowa
• Programming in COBOL (rotating class)
• Cal Poly
• Programming in COBOL

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COBOL and Higher Education

• Study of Business Managers
• CIS Majors should have a working knowledge of
  COBOL
• Because of the vast amount of code still being
  used
• Should have knowledge of both procedural and OO
  COBOL

43
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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Employment Opportunities and COBOL

• Monster.com
• COBOL or Mainframe or Legacy System
• 6,000 Hits
• Limit to just Entry Level
• 62 Hits
• Large corporations often higher through
  internship programs so their jobs not listed

45
Topics

• Introduction
• What is COBOL?
• COBOL Structure
• COBOL History
• COBOL-2002
• Object Oriented COBOL
• XML and COBOL
• Micro Focus and Net Express
• KOBOL
• COBOL and higher Education
• Employment Opportunities and COBOL
• Conclusion

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Conclusion

• COBOL will continue to decline in its use
• Still viable because it has adapted
• Biggest reason it has a future is amount still
  running on legacy systems

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References

• 1 Bitter, Gary G. (Ed). (1992). MacMillan
  Encyclopedia of Computers. New York MacMillan
  Publishing Company.
• 2 Khan, Mohammed B. (2003). COBOL. In Bidgoli,
  Hossein (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Information
  Systems Volume 1I (pp 113-126). New York
  Academic Press.
• 4 Kizour, Ronald Carr, Donald Halpern, Paul
  (2006). What Professionals think of the Future of
  COBOL? Electronic Version. Retrieved on October
  19, 2006 from http//www.cobolportal.com/developer
  /future.asp?bhcp1.
• 5 Narins, Brigham (Ed.). (2002) World of
  Computer Science. Detroti, MI Gale Group Thomson
  Learning.
• 6 Micro Focus International PLC. (2006) Micro
  Focus Net Express Data Sheet. Electronic
  Version. Retrived October 19, 2006, from
  http//www.microfocus.com

48
References

• 7 Reilly, Edwin D. (2003). Milestones in
  Computer Science and Information Technology.
  Westport, CT Greenwood Press.
• 8 theKompany.com (2006). KOBOL Multi-platform
  IDE and Compiler for COBOL Development. Retrieved
  October 17, 2006, from http//www.theKompany.com/p
  roducts/kobol
• 9 Stern, Nancy Stern, Robert A. Ley, James P
  (2003). COBOL for the 21st Century 10th Edition.
  New York John Wiley Sons, Inc.
• 10 Tauber, Barry. (2005). XML and the New COBOL
  Electronic Version. Retrieved October 19, 2006
  from http//www.webservicessummit.com/Trends/COBOL
  _XML.htm
• 11 University of Wisconsin-Platteville (2006).
  Computer Science and Software Engineering Program
  Information Electronic Version. Retrieved
  October 19, 2006 from http//www.uwplatt.edu/csse
• 12 Woodcock, JoAnne (Sr. Contributer). (1994).
  Computer Dictionary Second Edition. Redmond, WA
  Microsoft Press.