COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) was the first widely-
used high-level programming language for business applications.
Many payroll, accounting, and other business application
programs written in COBOL over the past 35 years are still in
use and it is possible that there are more existing lines of
programming code in COBOL than in any other programming
language. While the language has been updated over the years, it
is generally perceived as out-of-date and COBOL programs are
generally viewed as legacy applications. COBOL was an effort to
make a programming language that was like natural English, easy
to write and easier to read the code after you'd written it. The
earliest versions of the language, COBOL-60 and -61, evolved to
the COBOL-85 standard sponsored by the Conference on Data
Systems Languages (CODASYL). In years immediately preceding the
year 2000, many COBOL programs required change to accommodate
the new century. Programmers with COBOL skills were in demand by
major corporations and contra