Printout from COBOL Program Run at RCA in August 1960
date: label: date made
content: 1960
name: label: maker
content: RCA Corporation
notes: label: Description
content: This is one of the first successful printouts of a program written in the computer programming language COBOL. After COBOL was proposed and described in 1959, programmers at Remington Rand Univac and at RCA wrote compilers that translated COBOL commands into machine language. They also wrote test programs to demonstrate the language. Like later COBOL programs , this one was divided into four sections.
label: Description
content: The first identified the program and gave the name of the programmer. The second section, called the environment division, presented information about the specific machine used, such as the computer model, and locations to be used for different files. The third, or procedure, division was independent of the computer. It gave a series of statements about what the machine was to do. Although commands resemble ordinary English, the words used had very specific definitions and equations could be written using mathematical symbols. Finally, the data division defined the information to be processed. This data was entered so that it could be used in several programs, as in later database management systems. Successfully compiling a program produced a printout with each of these sections, as well as a listing of the desired results.
label: Description
content: This printout of the first successful COBOL compilation at RCA relates to inventory control. One page is marked in ink: Good output – 8/17/60 (/) (isn’t it beautiful) (/) not really [the not really is crossed out] (/) well almost.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New Jersey, Cherry Hill
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
label: See more items in
content: COBOL
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Courtesy of Howard Bromberg
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2010.3050.1
label: catalog number
content: 2010.3050.1
label: nonaccession number
content: 2010.3050
objectType: label: Object Name
content: documentation
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 1/2 in x 16 in x 1 in; 29.21 cm x 40.64 cm x 2.54 cm