COBOL

COBOL (/ˈkoʊbɒl/, an acronym for common business-oriented language) is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. COBOL is still widely used in legacy applications deployed on mainframe computers, such as large-scale batch and transaction processing jobs. But due to its declining popularity and the retirement of experienced COBOL programmers, programs are being migrated to new platforms, rewritten in modern languages or replaced with software packages. Most programming in COBOL is now purely to maintain existing applications.

COBOL was designed in 1959, by CODASYL and was partly based on previous programming language design work by Grace Hopper, commonly referred to as "the (grand)mother of COBOL". It was created as part of a US Department of Defense effort to create a portable programming language for data processing. Intended as a stopgap, the Department of Defense promptly forced computer manufacturers to provide it, resulting in its widespread adoption. It was standardized in 1968 and has since been revised four times. Expansions include support for structured and object-oriented programming. The current standard is ISO/IEC 1989:2014.

CamelCase

CamelCase (also camel caps or medial capitals) is the practice of writing compound words or phrases such that each word or abbreviation begins with a capital letter. Camel case may start with a capital or, especially in programming languages, with a lowercase letter. Common examples are LibreOffice, PowerPoint, iPhone, or in online usernames such as "JohnSmith".

In Microsoft documentation, camel case always starts with a lower case letter (e.g. backColor), and it is contrasted with PascalCase, which always begins with a capital letter (e.g. BackColor).

Variations and synonyms

Although the first letter of a camel case compound word may or may not be capitalized, the term camel case generally implies lowercase first letter. For clarity, this article calls the two alternatives upper camel case and lower camel case. Some people and organizations use the term camel case only for lower camel case. Other synonyms include:

StudlyCaps encompasses all such variations, and more, including even random mixed capitalization, as in MiXeD CaPitALiZaTioN (typically a stereotyped allusion to online culture).

COBOL (disambiguation)

COBOL can mean:

See also