COBOL vs Java vs Python | What are the differences?

COBOL

Stacks119

Followers146

+ 1

Votes2

Java

Stacks136.6K

Followers103.6K

+ 1

Votes3.7K

Python

Stacks247.3K

Followers202.1K

+ 1

Votes6.9K

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Pros of COBOL

Pros of Java

Pros of Python

2
Business Oriented Language

605
Great libraries
446
Widely used
401
Excellent tooling
396
Huge amount of documentation available
334
Large pool of developers available
209
Open source
203
Excellent performance
158
Great development
150
Used for android
148
Vast array of 3rd party libraries
61
Compiled Language
53
Used for Web
47
High Performance
46
Managed memory
45
Native threads
43
Statically typed
35
Easy to read
33
Great Community
29
Reliable platform
24
Sturdy garbage collection
24
JVM compatibility
22
Cross Platform Enterprise Integration
20
Good amount of APIs
20
Universal platform
18
Great Support
14
Great ecosystem
11
Lots of boilerplate
11
Backward compatible
10
Everywhere
9
Excellent SDK - JDK
7
Static typing
7
Cross-platform
7
It's Java
6
Mature language thus stable systems
6
Better than Ruby
6
Long term language
6
Portability
5
Clojure
5
Vast Collections Library
5
Used for Android development
4
Best martial for design
4
Most developers favorite
4
Old tech
3
Javadoc
3
History
3
Testable
3
Great Structure
3
Stable platform, which many new languages depend on
2
Type Safe
2
Faster than python
0
Job

1.2K
Great libraries
964
Readable code
847
Beautiful code
788
Rapid development
691
Large community
438
Open source
393
Elegant
282
Great community
273
Object oriented
221
Dynamic typing
77
Great standard library
60
Very fast
55
Functional programming
51
Easy to learn
46
Scientific computing
35
Great documentation
29
Productivity
28
Easy to read
28
Matlab alternative
24
Simple is better than complex
20
It's the way I think
19
Imperative
18
Very programmer and non-programmer friendly
18
Free
17
Powerfull language
17
Machine learning support
16
Fast and simple
14
Scripting
12
Explicit is better than implicit
11
Ease of development
10
Clear and easy and powerfull
9
Unlimited power
8
Import antigravity
8
It's lean and fun to code
7
Print "life is short, use python"
7
Python has great libraries for data processing
6
Rapid Prototyping
6
Readability counts
6
Now is better than never
6
Great for tooling
6
Flat is better than nested
6
Although practicality beats purity
6
I love snakes
6
High Documented language
6
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious
6
Fast coding and good for competitions
5
Web scraping
5
Lists, tuples, dictionaries
5
Great for analytics
4
Easy to setup and run smooth
4
Easy to learn and use
4
Plotting
4
Beautiful is better than ugly
4
Multiple Inheritence
4
Socially engaged community
4
Complex is better than complicated
4
CG industry needs
4
Simple and easy to learn
3
It is Very easy , simple and will you be love programmi
3
Flexible and easy
3
Many types of collections
3
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a g
3
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad id
3
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules
3
Pip install everything
3
List comprehensions
3
No cruft
3
Generators
3
Import this
3
Powerful language for AI
2
Can understand easily who are new to programming
2
Should START with this but not STICK with This
2
A-to-Z
2
Because of Netflix
2
Only one way to do it
2
Better outcome
2
Batteries included
2
Good for hacking
2
Securit
1
Procedural programming
1
Best friend for NLP
1
Slow
1
Automation friendly
1
Sexy af
0
Ni
0
Keep it simple
0
Powerful

Cons of COBOL

Cons of Java

Cons of Python

2
Extremely long code for simple functions

33
Verbosity
27
NullpointerException
17
Nightmare to Write
16
Overcomplexity is praised in community culture
12
Boiler plate code
8
Classpath hell prior to Java 9
6
No REPL
4
No property
3
Code are too long
2
Non-intuitive generic implementation
2
There is not optional parameter
2
Floating-point errors
1
Java's too statically, stronglly, and strictly typed
1
Returning Wildcard Types
1
Terrbible compared to Python/Batch Perormence

53
Still divided between python 2 and python 3
28
Performance impact
26
Poor syntax for anonymous functions
22
GIL
19
Package management is a mess
14
Too imperative-oriented
12
Hard to understand
12
Dynamic typing
12
Very slow
8
Indentations matter a lot
8
Not everything is expression
7
Incredibly slow
7
Explicit self parameter in methods
6
Requires C functions for dynamic modules
6
Poor DSL capabilities
6
No anonymous functions
5
Fake object-oriented programming
5
Threading
5
The "lisp style" whitespaces
5
Official documentation is unclear.
5
Hard to obfuscate
5
Circular import
4
Lack of Syntax Sugar leads to "the pyramid of doom"
4
The benevolent-dictator-for-life quit
4
Not suitable for autocomplete
2
Meta classes
1
Training wheels (forced indentation)

1.7K

204

15.5K

1.9M

3.4K

62.4K

2.2M

- No public GitHub repository available -

66.3K

31.6K

What is COBOL?

COBOL was one of the first programming languages to be standardised: the first COBOL standard was issued by ANSI in 1968. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments.

What is Java?

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

What is Python?

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

What companies use COBOL?

What companies use Java?

What companies use Python?

What tools integrate with COBOL?

What tools integrate with Java?

What tools integrate with Python?