COBOL was created to fulfill two major objectives: portability (ability of programs to be run with minimum modification on computers from different manufacturers) and readability (ease with which a program can be read like ordinary English).

• cobol的主要设计理念有二:可移植性(在不同制造商的计算机上执行只需最小程度的修改)和可读性(程序可当成普通英文轻易阅读)。