"Bob LeChevalier" <lojbab at lojban.org> wrote in message
news:6haaju4pe14ger0rbmskdeaml1deh2rkln at 4ax.com...
> "Parse Tree" <parsetree at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >> COBOL was and remains the industry standard in business programming,
which is
> >> the largest percentage of software in the country. Algol never was
much used
> >> in the US.
> >
> >Are you implying that COBOL is the most widely used language in the
world?
>> Yes. Y2K would not have been a problem if COBOL was not so widely used.
>> >That is not true. C holds that position. Actually, there are quite a
few
> >languages that are more widely used than COBOL.
>> I think (Visual) BASIC is the most used language for new software, C is
the
> most used for retail packages, but the iceberg of legacy COBOL programs
that
> have been and will be maintained for years if not decades to come because
it
> would cost too much to rewrite them still dominates.
Visual Basic is only used for low quality windows shareware, and quick and
dirty software. That may or may not be a larger chunk than that developed
by C/C++.
> If you have better cites than the following, I'd be interested.
>>http://gise.org/JISE/Vol1-5/COBOL.htm (1989, unfortunately)
>http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/arlib/ersurvey.html> both show COBOL most used in information systems
>>http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1995/oct/survey.asp> show that COBOL is in 3rd place in military systems, seeing almost no use
in
> weapons systems but dominating information systems, overall ending up in
3rd
> place behind ADA and C.
>> But non-military systems are predominantly information systems.
>>http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~rizos/papers/HPC/node3.html> indicates that the number of COBOL programmers is around 3 million
That's rather high.
>http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/cobol/> is from 2000, and says the following:
> >Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) has been in use since the late
1950s and is the major language for business applications. Estimates for new
business application development show COBOL and Visual Basic tied at about
35% of current microcomputer development.
I'm sorry, even though IBM is a very reliable source, I cannot believe this
figure. This states that 70% of development for microcomputers is done in
COBOL and Visual Basic. Microcomputers are Personal Computers.
Now that my interest is piqued, I'm looking for more recent stats.
