COBOL utilities for businesses

What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

In article <78ee9dc5-2bf4-44ae-b797-0f70af4b5605@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com>,
x01001x <xemail@softhome.net> wrote:
>What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
>COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
>What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

More of 'your own research', I guess.

DD

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:42:34 -0700 (PDT), x01001x
<xemail@softhome.net> wrote:

>What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
>COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
>What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

Google this: date routines, COBOL

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Steve

x01001x wrote:
> What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
> COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
> What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

Any large company that generates paychecks.

All insurance, banking, morgtage, investment, etc. companies.

Most government agencies that deal with money such as the Social Security
Administration.

They still do.

Anyone else wonder if the person asking this is taking the same "course" as the
person who posted a few weeks ago about why Y2K had "old" programs still
running?

--
Bill Klein
wmklein <at> ix.netcom.com
"x01001x" <xemail@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:78ee9dc5-2bf4-44ae-b797-0f70af4b5605@d1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
> COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
> What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

Same guy, Mr 9.

William M. Klein wrote:
> Anyone else wonder if the person asking this is taking the same "course" as the
> person who posted a few weeks ago about why Y2K had "old" programs still
> running?
>

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:42:34 -0700 (PDT), x01001x wrote:

> What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
> COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
> What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

You'd be hard pressed to find "utilities" as such. COBOL is wonderful for
full-blown data-centric applications, but I haven't seen too many utilities
written in it. I did hear once of a disassembler that output COBOL code ...

Kind regards,
Bruce.

-- Posted on news://freenews.netfront.net - Complaints to news@netfront.net --

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:42:34 -0700 (PDT), x01001x <xemail@softhome.net> wrote:

>What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
>COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
>What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

On Burroughs 'medium systems,' most utilities and parts of the operating system were
written in Cobol. The general purpose machines were used in many industries. The Burroughs
company existed until 1986.

On Aug 18, 4:42*am, x01001x <xem...@softhome.net> wrote:
> What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
> COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
> What kind of companies would be using these utilities?

About 20 years ago, I was asked to evaluate just such a program. It
ran on a PC-XT class computer. The setup and documentation was poor.
After invoking its batch file, it was obvious that it relied on
ANSI.SYS (ANSI character control sequences) for cursor positioning,
etc as the screen was filled with garbage including numerous left
brackets. After adding ANSI.SYS to CONFIG.SYS and rebooting, I was
treated to an ornate display for a simple application.

The system first pre-loaded an external file handler, FABS (Fast
Access B-Tree System) as a TSR (terminate and stay resident) program.
I presume this was for indexed files. Next a COBOL runtime loaded the
main program. Sorry I can't remember EXACTLY which COBOL.

The amusing part to me was this was an approximately $500 program that
acted as a simple tool inventory database for a construction business.
It had various menus which allowed building a database of tools in
each tool shed and then checking tools in and out, etc. I had to
chuckle as this was being marketed to small scale contractors with
small shops. I found it hard to believe that in such a shop, people
would actually take the time to check tools in or out. I also wondered
if an ordinary PC would survive the rigors of the shop environment -
dirt, sawdust, oil and grease included.

The final laugh came when I tried to search for a particular tool. The
screen prompts asked me to "Make your selection of the tool search
optimization algorithm." Needless to say I did not recomment that
particular program....

Of course, at that time, similarly crappy small business software was
also being written, more likely in some form of Microsoft Basic!

- e

An awful lot of "one-up" reports and such were, and still are, written
in Cobol. Also a lot of file conversions from one format to another.
Even stuff like picking up infomration in a report to built
transactions files. All these are "utilities" to me since they are not
really part of an application. Your milage may vary. -Paul


On Aug 18, 3:42*am, x01001x <xem...@softhome.net> wrote:
> What are some real world examples of software utilities written in
> COBOL that would have been used from 1980 until 1999?
> What kind of companies would be using these utilities?