COBOL, which stands for Common Business-Oriented Language, is one of the oldest high-level programming languages. It was designed in the late 1950s and early 1960s for business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. Despite its age, COBOL is still widely used today, particularly in legacy systems in large organizations.

1. Business-Oriented: COBOL was specifically designed for business applications. It excels in handling large volumes of data and is used extensively in industries such as banking, insurance, and government.
2. English-like Syntax: COBOL's syntax is designed to be readable and understandable by people who are not necessarily programmers. This makes it easier for business professionals to understand and maintain COBOL code.
3. Portability: COBOL programs can run on various types of hardware with minimal changes, making it a versatile choice for different computing environments.
4. Legacy Systems: Many critical systems in large organizations are still running on COBOL. This makes COBOL knowledge valuable for maintaining and upgrading these systems.

A COBOL program is divided into four main divisions:

1. Identification Division: This section provides metadata about the program, such as the program name and author.
2. Environment Division: This section specifies the environment in which the program will run, including the configuration of input and output devices.
3. Data Division: This section defines the variables and data structures used in the program.
4. Procedure Division: This section contains the actual code that performs the program's operations.

• IDENTIFICATION DIVISION: The PROGRAM-ID specifies the name of the program, which is HelloWorld in this case.
• ENVIRONMENT DIVISION: This division is empty in this simple example but would normally contain configuration details.
• DATA DIVISION: This division is also empty here but would typically define variables and data structures.
• PROCEDURE DIVISION: This is where the program's logic is written. The DISPLAY statement outputs the text 'Hello, World!' to the screen, and STOP RUN terminates the program.

Task: Write a COBOL program that displays the message "Welcome to COBOL Programming!".

Solution:

• IDENTIFICATION DIVISION: The PROGRAM-ID is set to WelcomeProgram.
• ENVIRONMENT DIVISION: This division remains empty as no specific environment configuration is needed.
• DATA DIVISION: This division is also empty since no variables are required for this simple task.
• PROCEDURE DIVISION: The DISPLAY statement outputs the message 'Welcome to COBOL Programming!', and STOP RUN ends the program.

In this section, we introduced COBOL, a language designed for business applications with an English-like syntax. We covered its key characteristics and provided a basic structure of a COBOL program. We also included a simple example and a practical exercise to reinforce the concepts. Understanding these basics prepares you for more advanced topics in COBOL programming.