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cortedel Newbie
cortedel
1 posts since
Nov 10, 2009
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Nov 10, 2009 12:17 PM

Advantages of PL/1 Language over cobol and vice versa

Could anyone help with the below question.

 

What are the advantages of PL/1 language over COBOL language.

 

1.I knew the pointer concept exists in Pl/1 and in Cobol, its does not exists.PL/1 has advantage of accessing the memory faster by using address pointers.

 

Apart from these differences.,what are the other main advantages and the differences?

Tags: pl/1, cobol.differences, advantages
larr_helms Grasshopper
larr_helms
2 posts since
Sep 18, 2009
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Nov 12, 2009 9:05 AM in response to: cortedel
Re: Advantages of PL/1 Language over cobol and vice versa

There are a LOT of scientificy types of reasons for using PL/1 (e.g. the pointers/linked lists) but there are also LOTS of reasons for using COBOL. I have PERSONALLY seen PL/1 programs that LOOKED almost identical to COBOL.

 

COBOL has a REALLY NICE report writer facility in it (that they never teach you how to use in school - sadly; because I think that's one of it's BEST strengths).  COBOL is best suited for batch job type - BULK data processing.  Reports, Printing Forms (e.g. Invoices, Bills, General Ledger, AP/AR Reports, etc.)

 

Designed to 'merge' the capabilities of COBOL and ForTran, PL/1 is more dynamic and better at performing tasks where data structures and usage are not as rigidly defined as in COBOL.  You can read all about the two in the Wikipedia.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL/I

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL

ROGER MILLER Apprentice
ROGER MILLER
4 posts since
Nov 5, 2009
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Nov 12, 2009 9:31 AM in response to: cortedel
Re: Advantages of PL/1 Language over cobol and vice versa

Over the years, the COBOL and PL/I languages have become more alike.  Recent generations of COBOL added a lot of object-oriented extensions and support for XML.

Enterprise COBOL and PL/I both come from the same lab, work with similar technology, emphasize use of the latest System z hardware and software improvements,

and helps integrate COBOL, PL/I and Web-based business processes in Web services, XML, Java, IMS, CICS, DB2 and other applications.

http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/cobol/zos/

http://www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/pli/plizos/

 

Roger Miller, DB2 for z/OS

Kim Moutsos Wizard
Kim Moutsos
145 posts since
Apr 9, 2009
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Nov 12, 2009 10:09 PM in response to: cortedel
Re: Advantages of PL/1 Language over cobol and vice versa

Hi cortedel,

 

Thanks for opening this great discussion. Roger and larr_helms have given some meaty answers. Let us know if these help or if you're looking for more.

 

Thanks,

Kim

Herb Goldschmidt Guru
Herb Goldschmidt
8 posts since
Oct 11, 2009
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Nov 16, 2009 8:12 AM in response to: Kim Moutsos
Re: Advantages of PL/1 Language over cobol and vice versa

I think a key point is that there are far more COBOL programmers than PL/Iders, and as has been said COBOL has over the years added features that bring it much closer to PL/I - another one to mention is proper structured programming constructs, like END-IF, END-PERFORM.  I taught PL/I at the IBM UK Customer Education Centre (Sudbury Hill) in the early 80s, by the way. Those were the days!

Kim Moutsos Wizard
Kim Moutsos
145 posts since
Apr 9, 2009
Currently Being Moderated
Nov 16, 2009 5:04 PM in response to: Herb Goldschmidt
Re: Advantages of PL/1 Language over cobol and vice versa

Thanks, herbg, we're lucky to have the benefit of your experience!

 

Kim

kschubert553 Apprentice
kschubert553
3 posts since
Nov 16, 2009
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Nov 17, 2009 2:53 PM in response to: cortedel
Re: Advantages of PL/1 Language over cobol and vice versa

It's been decades since I've done any PL/1, but.... I remember several features that I used including recursive routines, real multitasking, real multiprogramming, dynamic subroutines, and cheating a little to allow me to use PL/1 and FORTRAN interchangeably so I could write my matrix handling routines using PL/1 and my computational routines in FORTRAN.  Back then, it made a difference in length-of-job and therefore better turnaround.

 

Karl.

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