The most widely adopted computer language in history, COBOL is now causing a host of problems. It's also dangerously difficult to remove.

Admit it. If you haven’t created your own little programming language, you’ve probably at least thought about it. [Muffed] ...

These start-ups, including Axiom Math and Harmonic, both in Palo Alto, Calif., and Logical Intelligence in San Francisco, hope to create A.I. systems that can automatically verify computer code in ...