COBOL Objects Are Rapidly Approaching 

Technical Committee Directs Micro Focus to Draft Proposal for 00 COBOL

Palo Alto, Calif May 24, 1993 -- Object-oriented COBOL moved a step closer
to reality as the result of a recent decision by the industry committee
selected to set directions for the next COBOL OO standard. The X3J4
Technical Committee for COBOL standardization, comprising 14 corporate
members, examined new developments in a study on Object Orientation
presented by the X3J4.1 Task Group in March. The study, which was three
years in the making, was presented to the Technical Committee on March 22,
1993. Following three days of presentation and discussion of the OO
features in the Technical Report, the committee decided that these
features are to be part of the earliest possible revision to the COBOL
Standard. This could happen as early as 1997, the scheduled date for the
next full revision of the standard.

These OO features include:

* instantiation through a class definition
* invocation of objects using a messaging protocol
* class inheritance (multiple inheritance model)
* polymorphism
* static and dynamic binding
* use of object interfaces to separate definitions from
  implementations
* interface checking (with the ability to disable it for 
  rapid prototyping)

"While there are many hurdles to overcome, such as public review and
official approval by the Accredited Standards Committee (X3) and the
International Standards Organization (ISO), the outlook is bright for OO
COBOL," said Dan Clarke, product manager for Micro Focus OO Option and
alternate member to the Task Group. "Many are saying that COBOL is the
perfect language to extend with OO features because of the heavy
commitment made to COBOL by commercial applications, and because it is a
truly high-level language."

The next major piece of work to be done is the writing of a proposal for
the detailed changes to the COBOL language to enable the OO features that
have been agreed on. Raymond Obin of Micro Focus has been selected to
write this proposal and has accepted the assignment to complete a draft by
September, 1993. Mr. Obin has been a committee member since its inception
in November of 1989. He has been largely responsible for maintaining the
technical accuracy of report information, and was the editor of the
features chapter in the Technical Report. Mr. Obin has been with Micro
Focus for over seven years, and is currently the product development
manager for Micro Focus' OO Option.

Micro Focus enables enterprises that use information systems to benefit
from adopting new hardware and software technologies while leveraging
available skills and system resources. We do this by providing
state-of-the-art programming tools to empower application developers,
coupled with software technology to enable them to create new
industrial-strength applications, and bridging software to access and
enhance the value of existing systems. Micro Focus is located at 2465 East
Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, California 94303. Telephone: 415-856-4161.

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