"COBOL is an acronym for Common Business Oriented
Language and was the first language developed as a tool for
business applications in the sixties. ... Both the programmers and
business analysts found this language to be easier to understand
and read. A COBOL program reads more like an essay in
English rather than a computer-based language. ... People are
beginning to realize just how many legacy systems are written in
COBOL. There are billions of lines of code written in
COBOL." (EarthWeb)
"Object Orientation is the big new programming paradigm of
these days. COBOL 2000 will provide full support for the
constructs of Object Oriented Programming (OOP). Superficially, the
role of OOP in COBOL 2000 is similar to that of Structured
Programming in COBOL 85. There is, however, a very important
difference: While Structured Programming was meant to be an
alternative to traditional, "spaghetti-oriented" programming,
believed to be simply a better programming style, OOP will not
replace conventional programming, but will be used just for
specific programming tasks, for which it is better suited.
Traditional COBOL programming will not go away, but will be
complemented by new language features for defining classes and
objects." (Fujitsu Software)