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  5. COBOL vs Smalltalk

COBOL vs Smalltalk

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

COBOL
COBOL
Stacks130
Followers147
Votes2
Smalltalk
Smalltalk
Stacks554
Followers42
Votes0

COBOL vs Smalltalk: What are the differences?

Introduction: 
COBOL and Smalltalk are two different programming languages with unique characteristics and design principles. In this comparison, we will explore key differences between the two languages.

1. **Syntax**: COBOL is a business-oriented language known for its verbose syntax with English-like keywords and structure, whereas Smalltalk is known for its minimalist syntax which emphasizes the use of objects and messages to accomplish tasks.
2. **Paradigm**: COBOL follows a procedural programming paradigm, focusing on step-by-step execution of commands, while Smalltalk is a pure object-oriented language where every element is an object and interactions happen through messages.
3. **Applications**: COBOL is widely used in legacy systems, especially in the banking industry, due to its stability and reliability, while Smalltalk is predominantly used in educational settings and small to medium-sized projects that require rapid prototyping and flexibility.
4. **Community and Support**: COBOL has a large community of developers and extensive support resources due to its long-standing presence in the industry, whereas Smalltalk has a smaller but dedicated community with a focus on innovation and experimentation.
5. **Performance**: COBOL is known for its efficient handling of large volumes of data and batch processing, making it suitable for transaction-heavy applications, while Smalltalk is optimized for interactive development and GUI-based applications, offering a dynamic and interactive programming experience.
6. **Learning Curve**: COBOL is often considered to have a steeper learning curve due to its specific syntax and focus on business applications, while Smalltalk's simplicity and emphasis on object-oriented principles may make it more approachable for beginners in programming.

In Summary, COBOL and Smalltalk differ in their syntax, paradigm, applications, community support, performance, and learning curve, catering to distinct needs and preferences in the programming landscape.

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Detailed Comparison

COBOL
COBOL
Smalltalk
Smalltalk

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.

It is an object-oriented, dynamically typed reflective programming language. It was created as the language underpinning the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human–computer symbiosis". It was designed and created in part for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning.

-
Object-oriented; Dynamically typed; Reflective programming language
Statistics
Stacks
130
Stacks
554
Followers
147
Followers
42
Votes
2
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 2
    Business Oriented Language
Cons
  • 2
    Extremely long code for simple functions
No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available
Linux
Linux
macOS
macOS
Windows
Windows

What are some alternatives to COBOL, Smalltalk?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

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.

PHP

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

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!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

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