What is OOCobol?

[Anuj Dhawan]

OOCOBOL

OOCobol is Object Oriented Implementation of COBOL. COBOL Object Orientation and associated capabilities provides facilities for developing object-oriented programs using the COBOL programming language. These facilities are currently part of a proposal[Obi94] to extend standard COBOL as the result of work by an X3J4 taskgroup, and have not been officially approved by X3J4.

OO COBOL includes the following:

• The ability to define classes, comprising class object definitionsand object definitions.
• The ability to define data encapsulated inside class objects and objects.
• The ability to define methods for class objects and objects.
• The ability to use inheritance and define subclasses.
• The ability to use polymorphism and interfaces for maximum flexibility.
• The ability to define data items able to hold references to objects.
• The ability to invoke methods on objects.
• The ability to create and manage objects as required.
• The ability to use objects as a normal part of COBOL programming indeveloping new programs and maintaining existing programs.