IBM Announces Cobol Compiler for Linux x86

IBM has announced Cobol for Linux on x86 1.1, a compiler to complement IBM’s existing Cobol compiler family. The company hopes that this will enable customers to bring business applications written in Cobol to hybrid cloud environments.

IBM announces in announcing that Cobol for Linux on x86 1.1 consists of a compiler and runtime library and is based on Enterprise Cobol for z/OS. IBM also offers Cobol for AIX. With the addition, the company will empower enterprise customers to deploy their business Cobol applications for hybrid cloud environments, whether they consist of IBM Z, Power or Linux x86 systems.

Cobol stands for Common Business Oriented Language and this programming language for business applications dates back to 1959, in which Grace Hopper, among others, played a major role in its development. Particularly on IBM systems, there are still business-critical applications in use that are written in Cobol. However, a shortage of developers who master the language threatens to become a problem. Programmers who can handle it will retire and the language is not popular with younger generations, partly because of the desire to phase out Cobol.

IBM is still betting on Cobol. The company also announced Cobol Check at the beginning of March for testing Cobol applications on IBM Z systems. According to IBM, an estimated 200 billion lines of code written in Cobol are still in use and it is “up-to-date -technology’.