Episode Details

COBOL! Just its name can strike terror in the hearts of programmers. This language is old, it follows its own strange syntax, and somehow still runs the world of finance and government. But is COBOL really as bad as it's made out to be? Today we are talking a look at the languages origins and how it's become isolated from early every other programming language in common use. Perhaps most importantly for me, we will see is Grace Hopper should really be blamed for unleashing this beast onto mainframes.

Selected Sources:

https://archive.org/details/historyofprogram0000hist - History of Programming Languages, contains Sammet's account of CODASYL

https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_codasylCOB_6843924/ - COBOL 60 Manual

https://sci-hub.do/10.1016/0066-4138%2860%2990042-2 - FLOW-MATIC/MATH-MATIC usage paper