"COBOL is an acronym for Common Business Oriented Language and was the first language developed as a tool for business applications in the sixties. ...
Both the programmers and business analysts found this language to be easier to understand and read.
A COBOL program reads more like an essay in English rather than a computer-based language. ...
People are beginning to realize just how many legacy systems are written in COBOL.
There are billions of lines of code written in COBOL." (EarthWeb)
"Object Orientation is the big new programming paradigm of these days.
COBOL 2000 will provide full support for the constructs of Object Oriented Programming (OOP).
Superficially, the role of OOP in COBOL 2000 is similar to that of Structured Programming in COBOL 85.
There is, however, a very important difference: While Structured Programming was meant to be an alternative to traditional,
"spaghetti-oriented" programming, believed to be simply a better programming style, OOP will not replace conventional programming,
but will be used just for specific programming tasks, for which it is better suited.
Traditional COBOL programming will not go away, but will be complemented by new language features for defining classes and objects." (Fujitsu Software)