JFrog Introduces New Support for COBOL in Artifactory

You read correctly devs and software engineers – JFrog Artifactory now includes full support for COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language)!! This legendary software pillar in designing business applications, is making a comeback due to its incredible flexibility in being operating system-agnostic, giving customers more options for supporting their diverse enterprise environments. 

Created for transaction processing and still in use in many financial and business applications today, COBOL applications help run payroll programs, manage government pension funds, operate banking systems, manage hotel bookings, book airline tickets, and much more. Estimates largely agree that COBOL systems support more than $3 trillion in daily commerce, making it the unsung workhorse of programming languages. 

Most COBOL software today runs on modern mainframes – not on a museum piece of mainframe hardware as many people would assume given the age of COBOL as a language.  At JFrog we feel COBOL is often misunderstood – it’s not old – it’s a classic. While COBOL, at more than 60 years old, may qualify for AARP membership, it can clearly be considered a source of influence for all modern programming languages, which is one of the reasons we think “COBOL puts the ‘B’ in COOL!” 

Support for Remote, Local, and Virtual Repositories

Just like all the other package types natively integrated with JFrog Artifactory, developers can use Artifactory to manage dependencies and proxy OSS packages from the fabled COBOL package registry. 

For the private COBOL packages you create and share only within your team or department, you can maintain local COBOL repositories in JFrog Artifactory. You can create as many local COBOL repositories as needed, and specify the URLs in your cobol spec file for your dependencies.

And with Artifactory, you can combine any set of local and/or remote repositories into a virtual repository that acts as a single, logical repository accessible through a common URL.

Remote COBOL Repos

Local COBOL Repos

Virtual COBOL Repos

Look Behind You

JFrog continues to investigate the emergence – or re-emergence as the case may be – of cutting-edge programming languages to support the developer community in their software design pursuits. Examples of other languages being researched at the moment include: PASCAL, FORTRAN, and Smalltalk. 

At JFrog, we understand that for some, the road ahead is found far behind everyone else. #fool #april