The COBOL Language

COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) is the programming language most widely and extensively used in commercial and administrative data processing.

This COBOL implementation is a superset of the ANSI and ISO COBOL standard as specified in ANSI X3.23-1974 (ISO 1989-1978), and of the current ANSI and ISO COBOL standard as specified in ANSI X3.23-1985 (IS 1989:1985), ANSI X3.23a-1989 (IS 1989:1985/AM1), and ANSI X3.23b-1993 (IS 1989:1985/AM2). Language extensions include:

• Most of the more commonly used extensions of IBM OS/VS COBOL (Release 2.3 and later)
• Most of the language constructs of IBM VS COBOL II (all releases), IBM DOS/VS COBOL and IBM SAA AD/Cycle COBOL/370
• X/Open conforming extensions
• Extensions specific to this system.

Combinations of these extensions are permissible in program source.

The ANSI COBOL 1974 and 1985 modules that are fully implemented are:

• Nucleus
• Table Handling (In the Nucleus as of the ANSI'85 Standard)
• Record Sequential I/O
• Relative I/O
• Indexed I/O
• Sort-Merge
• Segmentation
• Library/Source Text Manipulation
• Inter-Program Communication
• Debug
• Report Writer

• Intrinsic Functions

This COBOL system meets the certification requirements for the above modules of the COBOL Compiler Validation System (CCVS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology.

A number of additional enhancements to the COBOL language are present:

• A screen-handling module, comprising a Screen Section and additional formats of ACCEPT and DISPLAY statements, which enable the user to specify exact location of fields on a screen, accept data entered at specified positions, display literal text at specified positions, define screen attributes, and control console features.
• Enhanced file I/O with an additional organization to handle text files efficiently; optional definition of file-names either within a program source (data variable or literal) or at run time from operating system environment variables; multiuser file-sharing facilities.
• Systems programming extension which enhances interlanguage calls and supports recursive COBOL programs.