[Cobolforgcc-devel] Press Release on COBOL Public Review

[William M. K. <wm...@ix...>]

For those interested in the future of COBOL, the following is the complete
Press Release "requesting" Public Review Comments on the draft COBOL
Standard,

(a web copy of this can be found at:
  http://people.ne.mediaone.net/doncobol/01-0074.htm

The method described below is for submitting *US* public review comments.
If you are "outside" the US, please contact your national Standards body -
as documented at:
  http://www.iso.ch/addresse/membodies.html)

"IT/01-0162
J4/01-0074

National Committee for Information Technology Standards (NCITS)
NCITS Secretariat, Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC)
1250 Eye St. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005
Telephone 202-737-8888; Fax 202-638-4922;
Email: nc...@it...

Date: January 31, 2001

NCITS (National Committee for Information Technology Standards is announcing
the public comment period for ISO/IEC FCD 1989, Information Technology-
Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces-
Programming Language COBOL. The public review extends from February23, 2001
to April 9, 2001, the U.S. TAG (NCITS/J4) will accept comments immediately.
ISO/IEC FCD 1989 can be downloaded from the NCITS/J4home page at:
http://www.ncits.org/tc_home/j4.htm

COBOL is the most widely used and most accepted of programming languages.
First developed in the late 1950's, COBOL has grown and evolved over time
with the release of international standards. Now in the wake of twin "40
Years of COBOL" celebrations in Japan and the US, a new draft international
standard is available for review.

The features of the new standard continue the COBOL tradition of being the
vanguard of international programming languages. The new standard continues
the tradition of the original COBOL specification, created to provide an
easy, natural syntax that is easy to use and maintain.

Key features of this draft include greater internationalization of the
language, better interlanguage communication and object orientation. In
addition, numerous updates to the syntax allows COBOL to continue as the
pre-eminent language for processing and manipulating data.  The introduction
of the new Validate feature is just one example. The new standard also
implements common exception handling.  Free format source will free the
programmer from the traditional 80 column restraints of the original COBOL.
Inline comments will make it easier to comment specific features of a
program to ease future maintenance.  New TYPEDEFS and new data types will
make it easier for the COBOL programmer to communicate with other languages
as well as making it easier for these other languages to make use of COBOL
programs that contain key business rules.

New COBOL development using Object Orientation will now be possible. The
COBOL OO syntax is feature rich and robust.  Object oriented programmers
will find the syntax familiar, while traditional COBOL programmers will be
pleased with the continued tradition of an English like syntax that makes
programs easy to read and understand.

COBOL is the language of the new millennium and NCITS/J4 is very pleased to
present this update for public review.

Public Review Comment Instructions

To facilitate speedy consideration of comments, please submit them via email
to Deborah Donovan at ddo...@it...,  with a copy to:  PSA Department
(ps...@an...) ANSI, 11 West  42nd Street, New York, NY  10036.  In
addition, all public review comments must include name, company name,
address, telephone number, and email address if applicable.

Any public review comments received after April 9, 2001 will be addressed
and considered for future balloting and/or revision.

[Note to Commentors]:  Due to their meeting schedule for ISO/IECFCD 1989,
the U.S. TAG (NCITS/J4) does not plan to be able to issue responses to
commentors until May 2002.

Call for Patents

A call for possible patents and pertinent issues (copyrights, trademarks) is
also being issued. Please submit information on these issues to the NCITS
Secretariat at 1250 Eye Street NW, Suite 200, Washington DC 20005.Email:
NCITS @itic.org

NCITS issues this call for patents in accordance with ANSI Procedures for
the Development and Coordination of American National Standards."


--
Bill Klein
 wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com