transcription, транскрипция: [ /koh'bol/ n. ]
[COmmon Business-Oriented Language] (Synonymous with evil .) A weak, verbose, and flabby language used by card walloper s to do boring mindless things on dinosaur mainframes. Hackers believe that all COBOL programmers are suit s or code grinder s, and no self-respecting hacker will ever admit to having learned the language. Its very name is seldom uttered without ritual expressions of disgust or horror. One popular one is Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous observation that "The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense." (from "Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective") See also fear and loathing , software rot .