Eclipse Community Forums: COBOL » What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java?

Help

Home

Home » Language IDEs » COBOL » What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java?

Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator

What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #860382]

Fri, 27 April 2012 23:05

Edmund Prynne
Messages: 2
Registered: April 2012
Location: Iuka,MS

Junior Member

I have to take a business applications programming class. I have a choice between a class using COBOL and one using Java. Which one is the most sought after in today's job market? Assuming there are still jobs to be had in the future.

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #880312 is a reply to message #860382]

Fri, 01 June 2012 16:49

Yevgeny Shifrin
Messages: 170
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

As far as I know, Java is much more popular today.

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #906119 is a reply to message #860382]

Fri, 31 August 2012 12:52

Bill Killen
Messages: 1
Registered: August 2012

Junior Member

I will take a different tack from the other poster. you will want to learn Java, as it is very pervasive and the most popular development language "today". However, if you just choose Java, you will be just like everyone else and there are plenty of java developers in the market today already.

COBOL, on the other hand, is interesting. It is 50 years old, well defined and over 1 million lines of code are written DAILY in COBOL. Also the majority of COBOL has never been deployed on a mainframe (80% or some such number). This is all on Unix-type hardware, and working its way into the cloud as we speak.

Who cares? Well, COBOL has been historically managed and developed by "Baby Boomers", right? When you go to a meeting and talk about COBOL, everyone in the room is grey and prepared for retirement. Who is going to manage all this stuff that they wrote the last several decades? YOU are!

COBOL is in a place of change right now. Companies are making it easier for us younger folks to develop COBOL with IDE frameworks that we already use, such as Eclipse. COBOL is running in Java VM's now; Check out Micro Focus "Visual COBOL" which takes this to Eclipse and Visual Studio. Companies are building composite applications and leveraging existing frameworks and objects to do new things.

Companies are taking it off the mainframe in some places, they are enabling it to be accessed by newer technologies and running COBOL on Android and other small footprint devices.

I am not in the COBOL business, but my employer is.

There will always be work managing "legacy" systems and making them relevant or available to newer technologies. One of my military customers said it best "Legacy means that it works." If you can help companies leverage what they built without full replacement (whenever feasible) , there is significant value and cost savings to be had in doing so.

Happy Schooling!
bk

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #909744 is a reply to message #860382]

Fri, 07 September 2012 13:32

Srikanth N.
Messages: 1
Registered: September 2012
Location: Bangalore

Junior Member

Java Is EverGreen Green Razz

-- Srikanth.N

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #988243 is a reply to message #860382]

Thu, 29 November 2012 00:08

Pauline Taylor
Messages: 5
Registered: November 2012

Junior Member

Java will be more beneficial if you choose it for your career and it have bright scope ahead as you can mobile application developer, website developer or else.

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #994542 is a reply to message #860382]

Thu, 27 December 2012 11:22

Chris Gyle
Messages: 2
Registered: December 2012

Junior Member

COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments.

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #1004527 is a reply to message #994542]

Wed, 23 January 2013 07:02

gloria cartwright
Messages: 1
Registered: January 2013

Junior Member

hi this is Gloria Cartwright,
in my words java language will be more beneficial to bright future COBOL is the oldest language

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #1014236 is a reply to message #1004527]

Mon, 25 February 2013 07:24

Shane Matts
Messages: 1
Registered: February 2013

Junior Member

I think Java is most widely used today as compared to COBOL. COBOL is not as popular as Java is. Java is one of the most popular programming language.

Report message to a moderator

Re: What is the better programming language to learn, COBOL or Java? [message #1053645 is a reply to message #860382]

Tue, 07 May 2013 02:45

jack coleman
Messages: 2
Registered: May 2013

Junior Member

First, learn how to learn a language. For this you can start with any language that has a good manual.

Second, be adaptable. Each language has its uses. An analyst will choose the language that can do the job and is cheapest to maintain (i.e. a junior programmer can be hired to update that old code...).

Third, avoid the X is better/best than Y wars.

Finally, learn BOTH Java and Cobol, but more importantly learn how to analyze a user's programming problem and then how to choose the appropriate language for the job.

Jack

Report message to a moderator

Previous Topic:	Using Lemo Eclipse
Next Topic:	toString helper

Goto Forum:

-=] Back to Top [=-

[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [

]

Current Time: Tue May 28 05:15:39 EDT 2013