COMTRAN (Common Language for Programming Business Applications) is a high-level programming language developed in the late 1950s by the RAND Corporation. Similar to FLOW-MATIC and COBOL, COMTRAN was designed for business data processing applications. It aimed to provide a common language that could be used for a variety of business-oriented computing tasks. Here are key aspects of COMTRAN:

1. Development at RAND Corporation:
   • COMTRAN was developed at the RAND Corporation, a research organization, around the same time as other early high-level programming languages like FLOW-MATIC and LISP.
2. Business-Oriented:
   • Like its contemporaries, COMTRAN was designed with a focus on business data processing applications. It aimed to provide a language that could be used for a wide range of business computing tasks.
3. Data Description and Processing:
   • COMTRAN included features for describing data and specifying data processing operations. It allowed programmers to define data structures and manipulate data in a way that aligned with business requirements.
4. Development Environment:
   • COMTRAN was developed within the context of the JOHNNIAC computer at RAND. JOHNNIAC was an early von Neumann architecture computer, and COMTRAN was designed to run on this system.
5. Numeric and Character Data Types:
   • COMTRAN supported both numeric and character data types, which was important for handling the diverse data encountered in business applications.
6. Use of Subroutines:
   • COMTRAN made use of subroutines, allowing programmers to modularize their code and reuse common procedures.
7. Influence on Later Languages:
   • While COMTRAN itself did not become as widely used as some other early languages like COBOL, its development contributed to the broader landscape of high-level programming languages.
   • The ideas and concepts from COMTRAN and other early languages influenced the design of subsequent languages and contributed to the evolution of programming paradigms.
8. Legacy:
   • The legacy of COMTRAN lies in its role as an early attempt to create a high-level programming language for business applications. While not as prominent as COBOL, it was part of the early exploration and experimentation with languages tailored for business data processing.
9. Transition to COBOL:
   • Over time, COBOL emerged as a more widely adopted and standardized language for business applications. COBOL’s success led to its extensive use in various industries for several decades.

Like many early programming languages, COMTRAN represents a stage in the evolution of language design during the early days of computing. While it may not have achieved the widespread adoption of languages like COBOL, its development and ideas contributed to the broader landscape of programming language history.