PL/I
A programming language created by IBM in the 1960s for both business and scientific work, still used at some mainframe sites.
Also written PL/1, PLI, Enterprise PL/I
PL/I, short for Programming Language One, was designed by IBM in the 1960s to do the work of both COBOL, for business, and FORTRAN, for science, in one language. It is written PL/I with a Roman numeral, though you will often see PL/1.
It never replaced COBOL, but it became the main language at some organisations, particularly banks and insurers in parts of Europe. Their core systems may be written mostly in PL/I, and they still need people who can maintain it.
The language looks more like modern languages than COBOL does. Programs are made of blocks and procedures, variables are declared with DCL, and statements end with a semicolon. It has strong support for text handling, pointers and error conditions. IBM's current compiler is Enterprise PL/I for z/OS, and PL/I programs run under Language Environment, so they can call and be called by COBOL programs.
If you know COBOL, the ideas of records, files, batch processing and CICS programming are the same. Most of the learning is the syntax.
Where can I learn this hands-on?
Right here, at ZedBank. You take a junior job at a simulated bank and learn each part of the work by doing it, with Zed beside you. There's nothing to install.
Start at ZedBankRelated
- COBOLThe programming language most business logic on the mainframe is written in. Verbose by design, and still running the world's payments.
- Language EnvironmentThe common run-time support for COBOL, PL/I and C programs on z/OS, which handles storage, errors and messages while they run.
- CompileTurning COBOL source code into machine instructions, checking the syntax and producing a listing of any errors.
- AssemblerThe low-level programming language of the mainframe, where each statement matches a single machine instruction.
- Load moduleThe runnable form of a program, stored in a library, which JCL executes by name.