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COBOL

March 17, 2011 - February 11, 2013

Museum: American History Museum

Location: Artifact Walls near the Constitution Ave. Entrance

COBOL, or Common Business Orientated Language, was one of the first computer-programming languages to run successfully on different brands of computers; it was devised 50 years ago by a committee of programmers to combat the problem of each manufacturer using a different computer language. This display case features parts of two of the first computers -- built by different manufacturers -- to run COBOL, the actual printout from the first successful test of the language, and related documents.

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Online Exhibition