COBOL is still very relevant in today’s world, running in the background in banks, businesses and financial institutions, running largely unnoticed on mainframes and similar high-reliability computer systems.
For those interested in getting started with COBOL, the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) just got updated with a brand-new COBOL frontend in its 15.1 release, although it is currently only available on Linux.
For those without Linux, there is GnuCOBOL, which is a translator for COBOL to C code before compiling it into a binary.
COBOL is a domain-specific language used for writing data transactions, report generating and related tasks.
It gets one started with very little fuss, while providing native support for decimal calculations, and a range of I/O access and database types, even with mere files.
This short tutorial gives a basic intro to COBOL, including writing data transactions and report generating.
The article also links to a couple of Github COBOL projects for further exploration.
