Add Article for Hello World in COBOL

_data/authors.yml

@@ -227,6 +227,15 @@ stuin:
   web: http://stuintech.com
   bio:
 
+sudhanshu_dubey:
+  name: Sudhanshu Dubey
+  email: [email protected]
+  web: https://hacksd.wordpress.com/
+  bio: |
+    An aspiring computer science engineer with experience of Linux, 
+    Android App Development and General Programming. 
+    Also enthusiastically learning Mainframe technology.
+
 the_renegade_coder:
   name: Jeremy Grifski
   email: [email protected]

projects/hello-world/_posts/2021-10-08-cobol.md

@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+---
+title: Hello World in COBOL
+layout: default
+last-modified: 2021-10-08
+tags: [COBOL, hello-world]
+authors:
+  - sudhanshu_dubey
+---
+
+In this article, we will see how Hello World can be written in one of the oldest and still relevant programming language, COBOL.
+
+## How to Implement the Solution
+
+From it's very nature, COBOL is a very readable language.
+But even though it's readable, it follows very strict rules.
+
+```cobol
+        IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
+        PROGRAM-ID. HELLO-WORLD.
+        PROCEDURE DIVISION.
+            DISPLAY "Hello, World!".
+            STOP RUN.
+```
+
+The structure of a COBOL program follows like this:
+
+- At the highest level are "Divisions".
+- "Divisions" consist of "Sections".
+- "Sections" consist of "Paragraphs".
+- "Paragraphs" consist of "Sentences".
+- "Sentences" consist of "Statements".
+- "Statements" consist of "Characters".
+
+We know that Python as language cares a lot about indentation but COBOL is even more particular about it.
+A COBOL program is divided into columns. The Divisions must start from column 8 (Area A).
+Paragraphs and Sentences should start from column 12 (Area B) which you can see is 1 tab or 4 spaces away from Area A.
+This indentation is also a reason why COBOL is so readable.
+Now that we have cleared some basics, let's start reading the Hello World program.
+
+The `IDENTIFICATION DIVISION` is one of the 4 Divisions that we have and it is mandatory.
+As the name suggests, it consists of information that identifies the program like the author name, date of creation, etc.
+One mandatory information for program identification is, you guessed it, the `PROGRAM-ID` statement.
+Here we are declaring the `PROGRAM-ID` as `HELLO-WORLD`.
+As a side note, we should ideally keep the `PROGRAM-ID` same as the file name and only 8 characters long. But since we will be running this program on a Linux environment, it's fine.
+
+Next we have the other mandatory Division, `PROCEDURE DIVISION`.
+This contains all the Paragraphs and Sentences that do the actual work.
+And here, the Sentence doing our work is `DISPLAY "Hello, World!"`.
+`DISPLAY` is our Statement here and it does what it says it does.
+Then we have another Statement ,which is a Sentence in itself, `STOP RUN`.
+And well, it stops the run and returns the control to either the calling program or the OS.
+Also you should end any part of the program with a period. It might be optional at some places but it is recommended.
+That's it! Apart from the little nuances of indentation and program structure, it's a very readable program.
+
+## How to run the Solution
+
+To run the solution we will need [a COBOL compiler][1] installed and of the course [the actual code file][2].
+Finally we need to run these commands in order:
+
+```console
+cobc -x hello-world.cbl
+$ ./hello-world
+```
+The commands first compile the source code into an executable and then execute it.
+Alternatively, you might want to use an [online COBOL compiler][3]
+
+[1]: https://gnucobol.sourceforge.io/
+[2]: https://github.com/TheRenegadeCoder/sample-programs/blob/main/archive/c/cobol/hello-world.cbl
+[3]: https://www.jdoodle.com/execute-cobol-online/