Multiplication tables in COBOL

This program is a simple demonstration of basic user I/O and arithmetic operations in one of the earliest versions of COBOL that was made available for home computers in the early '80s. The "executable" was actually an intermediate binary format created as the compiler output, which could then be executed by another program, not very differently than today's Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers or pre-compiled interpreted languages.

The language is the creation of Grace Hopper, a pivotal figure in the evolution of programming and the design of the first trully general-purpose languages. The two main strengths of COBOL was the rich I/O functionality for data file handling and the screen handling routines for creating terminal-based user I/O via forms and tables. Although functionally limited and with loquacious syntax by the programming standards of later language generations, COBOL was deemed extremely reliable and understandable by the programmers of those early days. So much that, even today, there are millions of lines of COBOL code running 24/7 in huge data centers for data management, for example in the financial and insurance business sectors.

Enable captions for more details and walk-through. Source code available at the Github repository (see channel info).

Tags: #asmr #coding #programming #notalking #cobol #retro #msdos #dosbox

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