• DOI:10.1145/960118.808378
• Corpus ID: 10743643

The early history of COBOL

@article{Sammet1978TheEH,
  title={The early history of COBOL},
  author={Jean E. Sammet},
  journal={ACM SIGPLAN Notices},
  year={1978},
  volume={13},
  pages={121-161}
}

• J. Sammet
• Published 1 August 1978
• Computer Science
• ACM SIGPLAN Notices

This paper discusses the early history of COBOL, starting with the May 1959 meeting in the Pentagon which established the Short Range Committee which defined the initial version of COBOL, and continuing through the creation of COBOL 61. The paper gives a detailed description of the committee activities leading to the publication of the first official version, namely COBOL 60. The major inputs to COBOL are discussed, and there is also a description of how and why some of the technical decisions in COBOL were made. Finally, there is a brief “after the fact” evaluation, and some indication of the implication of COBOL on current and future languages.