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Even though we have languages like C++, Java, Python, etc., why is COBOL still a preferred language in the business world?
Why was it so popular?
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It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. COBOL is still widely used in applications deployed on mainframe computers, such as large-scale batch and transaction processing jobs.
COBOL is still very popular today in 2021. Depending on the source you're looking at, there are still between 200 and 250 billion lines of COBOL code in production. Many large corporations, 70% in fact, still rely on COBOL for much of their mission critical work.
After more than 60 years of use, the COBOL programming language is still alive, with application modernization efforts driving its growth. Although it is one of the oldest programming languages — first appearing in 1959 — COBOL is continuing to find usage in 2022.
While the future is uncertain, the decades-old programming language running on mainframes proved its staying power during the pandemic.
Code inertia. Huge amounts of existing code written in COBOL = prohibitive costs to switch everything over to another language. Wikipedia says there are over 200 billion lines of COBOL code in use.
Policy inertia. The places where COBOL is really in deep use tend to be government agencies and large businesses, which are notoriously slow to change.
Human inertia. People who make their living writing code and know many languages are less likely to consider it a big deal to learn a new one. People who learned one language because they needed to know it to perform what's otherwise a "business" job may not even think to switch.
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