Visual C++ vs. COBOL

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February 22nd, 2003, 08:22 PM
bedsfred

Visual C++ vs. COBOL

Hi, I'm in Highschool still curently a Jr. and I'm signing up for my next year classes.

I'm planning on going to a Vocational Tech School for half of the day and I can't decide on which class would be a better career decision.

The classes in question are Visual C++ Programming or COBOL Programming both of which include internships the second semester. I a little experienced with C++, but I don't have the slightest idea of what COBOL is about or like.

Thanks For Your help and please take the survey below.
February 22nd, 2003, 09:22 PM
codergish

I would suggest v C++, it is still being used. COBOL....on the other hand did what is was intended to do back in its time.. in my opinion, it is a very messy language, ugly syntax... Someone else may have a use for COBOL...I know I see it in some of the places I am contracted....other then that I don't know of anyone still coding in it.
February 22nd, 2003, 09:40 PM
avdven

As codergish stated, COBOL is quite antiquated. I would suggest C++ as well, not only because it is still a defacto programming standard, but also because it is an Object Oriented Programming languaged. COBOL was originally developed to allow non-technical people (aka business people) to write programs. As such, it is a very limited language with little to no practical use in today's world. One advantage to learning COBOL is so that you can get hired by companies using old COBOL programs, and you can port them over to another language, but that would still require knowing another language. I suggest, you stick with C++ for the time-being. If you're still interested in COBOL later, read a few online tutorials and buy a book or two.

AJ
February 22nd, 2003, 10:07 PM
ShagDevil

I highly disagree about Cobol being obsolete and/or not practical in todays market. Granted, it is an old language but it still performs quite well considering it's a 25+ year old computer language still competing against newer languages. The mere fact of its longevity speaks highly about it. I think the syntax is great, as you can delve into any Cobol program written 20 years ago and know exactly what the programmer was attempting to do(unlike other languages). Also, limiting the syntax (part of the highly defined coding structure) is a great idea as it helps cap off spaghetti coding. If you're wondering, yes, I was a Cobol programmer and I actually liked it alot better than Visual Basic and C++. As for being inpractical and obsolete, that's simply not true. The company I worked for did all its coding in Cobol II in all forms of applications, everything from Accounts Recievable to Warehouse Inventory. Alot of our clients were fairly large as well. examples of some clients - Boeing, Honeywell, Tristar, Mcd/Douglas. You would be surprised just how many companys still use Cobol and for it's original intended purpose, Cobol is a great langauge.
And yes, before I left the company, we were actually running online programs written in Cobol,(a proggy called Cobol Script helped alot) so it's internet friendly as well.
February 22nd, 2003, 10:39 PM
ammo

The thing is, cobol programmers are mostly condemend to do code maintenance... Not many new projects are being developped in cobol... Let's just say that a new programmer that shows up with only cobol on it's CV, doesn't look as interesting and has much less options as someone with (Visual) C++.

Ammo
March 3rd, 2003, 06:35 PM
x acidreign x

COBOL IS SATAN, i did 7 weeks of that last year and I HATED IT, but i must say, if i had to sit down and code a COBOL program right now, i could probably do it.. which is more than i could say for C++. COBOL is a very well structured language and good for handling mass quantities of raw data, but I would definitely suggest C++. WAY more applicable to modern programming, all a year of COBOL will get you is a job debugging, writting, maintaining, or converting COBOL and that is my idea of the fifth ring of hell!
March 3rd, 2003, 06:37 PM
mohaughn

I'll have to agree with Shagdevil on this one. Cobol is still very common in large enterprises. Most banking systems still run on cobol, as do most telecommunication billing and ordering systems. There is still a lot of Cobol programming going on, it is just very specific to certain industries. My company uses it extensively as do many of the companies we work with.

With that being said however, I would still take a c++ class as it is far more common.
March 3rd, 2003, 07:13 PM
jxrry59

As far as learning goes, I was told today that cobol is easier in the sense that it is more straightforward than c++. I am taking c++ now (43 years old) and my prof thinks the M$ visual studio6 we use is garbage-It is difficult for me to judge becuase I have used borland and not much else(exceptin' visual studio)
March 3rd, 2003, 07:19 PM
owls

C++ rocks
March 4th, 2003, 01:12 AM
ammo

Quote:

Originally posted here by jxrry59
As far as learning goes, I was told today that cobol is easier in the sense that it is more straightforward than c++. I am taking c++ now (43 years old) and my prof thinks the M$ visual studio6 we use is garbage-It is difficult for me to judge becuase I have used borland and not much else(exceptin' visual studio)

IMO, Visual Studio 6 rules. The IDE is great, the debugger works very nicely...

Ammo
March 4th, 2003, 01:21 AM
mathgirl32

WooHoo!! I thought I was the only one here who liked and used MS Visual C++ 6.0! Jxrry59, did you ask your professor "why" he thought it was "garbage"?? That's a pretty strong statement.
March 4th, 2003, 01:55 AM
RunningDuck

I have very limited experience in COBOL, but I love C++ too much to switch. It's a very flexible language, and you can find source code for it all over the internet, if you decide you need a little help getting going.

Right now I'm using it to write a couple video games just for practice. It's a logical language, easy to follow and fairly easy to learn. If you have the time to put into it, it's definitely worth the effort.