COBOL computer language

The invention: The first user-friendly computer programming language,
COBOL was originally designed to solve ballistics problems.
The people behind the invention:
Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992), an American
mathematician
Howard Hathaway Aiken (1900-1973), an American
mathematician
Plain Speaking
Grace Murray Hopper, a mathematician, was a faculty member
at Vassar College when World War II (1939-1945) began. She enlisted
in the Navy and in 1943 was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance
Computation Project, where she worked on ballistics problems.
In 1944, the Navy began using one of the first electronic
computers, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC),
designed by an International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation
team of engineers headed by Howard Hathaway Aiken, to solve
ballistics problems. Hopper became the third programmer of the
ASCC.
Hopper’s interest in computer programming continued after
the war ended. By the early 1950’s, Hopper’s work with programming
languages had led to her development of FLOW-MATIC, the
first English-language data processing compiler. Hopper’s work
on FLOW-MATIC paved the way for her later work with COBOL
(Common Business Oriented Language).
Until Hopper developed FLOW-MATIC, digital computer programming
was all machine-specific and was written in machine
code. A program designed for one computer could not be used on
another. Every program was both machine-specific and problemspecific
in that the programmer would be told what problem the
machine was going to be asked and then would write a completely
new program for that specific problem in the machine code.Machine code was based on the programmer’s knowledge of the
physical characteristics of the computer as well as the requirements of
the problem to be solved; that is, the programmer had to know what
was happening within the machine as it worked through a series of calculations, which relays tripped when and in what order, and what
mathematical operations were necessary to solve the problem. Programming
was therefore a highly specialized skill requiring a unique
combination of linguistic, reasoning, engineering, and mathematical
abilities that not even all the mathematicians and electrical engineers
who designed and built the early computers possessed.
While every computer still operates in response to the programming,
or instructions, built into it, which are formatted in machine
code, modern computers can accept programs written in nonmachine
code—that is, in various automatic programming languages. They
are able to accept nonmachine code programs because specialized
programs now exist to translate those programs into the appropriate
machine code. These translating programs are known as “compilers,”
or “assemblers,” andFLOW-MATIC was the first such program.
Hopper developed FLOW-MATIC after realizing that it would
be necessary to eliminate unnecessary steps in programming to
make computers more efficient. FLOW-MATIC was based, in part,
on Hopper’s recognition that certain elements, or commands, were
common to many different programming applications. Hopper theorized
that it would not be necessary to write a lengthy series of instructions
in machine code to instruct a computer to begin a series of
operations; instead, she believed that it would be possible to develop
commands in an assembly language in such a way that a programmer
could write one command, such as the word add, that
would translate into a sequence of several commands in machine
code. Hopper’s successful development of a compiler to translate
programming languages into machine code thus meant that programming
became faster and easier. From assembly languages such
asFLOW-MATIC, it was a logical progression to the development of
high-level computer languages, such as FORTRAN (Formula Translation)
and COBOL.The Language of Business
Between 1955 (when FLOW-MATIC was introduced) and 1959, a
number of attempts at developing a specific business-oriented language
were made. IBM and Remington Rand believed that the only
way to market computers to the business community was through the development of a language that business people would be
comfortable using. Remington Rand officials were especially committed
to providing a language that resembled English. None of
the attempts to develop a business-oriented language succeeded,
however, and by 1959 Hopper and other members of the U.S. Department
of Defense had persuaded representatives of various companies
of the need to cooperate.
On May 28 and 29, 1959, a conference sponsored by the Department
of Defense was held at the Pentagon to discuss the problem of
establishing a common language for the adaptation of electronic
computers for data processing. As a result, the first distribution of
COBOL was accomplished on December 17, 1959. Although many
people were involved in the development of COBOL, Hopper played
a particularly important role. She not only found solutions to technical
problems but also succeeded in selling the concept of a common
language from an administrative and managerial point of view. Hopper
recognized that while the companies involved in the commercial
development of computers were in competition with one another, the
use of a common, business-oriented language would contribute to
the growth of the computer industry as a whole, as well as simplify
the training of computer programmers and operators.
Consequences
COBOL was the first compiler developed for business data processing
operations. Its development simplified the training required
for computer users in business applications and demonstrated that
computers could be practical tools in government and industry as
well as in science. Prior to the development of COBOL, electronic
computers had been characterized as expensive, oversized adding
machines that were adequate for performing time-consuming mathematics
but lacked the flexibility that business people required.
In addition, the development of COBOL freed programmers not
only from the need to know machine code but also from the need to
understand the physical functioning of the computers they were using.
Programming languages could be written that were both machine-
independent and almost universally convertible from one
computer to another.Finally, because Hopper and the other committee members worked
under the auspices of the Department of Defense, the software
was not copyrighted, and in a short period of time COBOL became
widely available to anyone who wanted to use it. It diffused rapidly
throughout the industry and contributed to the widespread adaptation
of computers for use in countless settings.