COBOL is Fifty

February 3, 2010 -Smyrna, Ga.

The first successful execution of a COBOL compiler occurred fifty years ago on December 6th, 1960. Setting that date as COBOL's birthday means that this year is it's fiftieth birthday.

Since my birthday is February 3, 1960, that makes me older than COBOL and 50 years old today.

I graduated from college in 1984 and started a professional programming career in July of that year. A good portion of that 25 year career was spent writing COBOL programs.

A lot of thing have changed since then, but some things have not. The lessons I learned early in my career are still true today: know the strengths and weaknesses of your tools, select the right tool for the job and most importantly, know how to throughly test your programs.