The 1985 COBOL standard

Abstract

The Common Business Oriented Language, COBOL, will celebrate its 30th anniversary in April of next year. The new standard for COBOL compilers, hereafter called COBOL 85, was announced in September of 1985 after seven years of deliberation. This new version of the world's most popular language presents many new improvements which will serve to further promote the efficiency of COBOL's data processing capabilities. However, nothing can be gained without sacrifice. By improving the programming efficiency this new standard had to give up complete upward compatibility.