8. Outlook

8.1 Object-oriented COBOL

Object-oriented programming methods are opening up completely new horizons in the development of business applications.

So it's only natural that the leading business programming language, COBOL, should embrace object-oriented programming, but not without a few problems to solve.

The ANSI-X3J4 group, which is responsible for developing the future COBOL standard, now scheduled for 1997, decided in 1992 to create an X3J4.1 OO-COBOL (Object Oriented COBOL) subgroup, dedicated to object programming.

The experts at X3J4.1 are working hard to make OO-COBOL an integral part of the COBOL 1997 standard.

Their work was presented at the latest ISO-SC22-WG4 COBOL seminars....