IBM MAINFRAME HELP & SUPPORT FORUMS

naveen_desireddy · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Hyderabad, India

As i have worked in almost 3 projects, I found that every where Natural & Cobol both have been used as most of the Database will be in ADABAS, and calculation part will be on Cobol and the Other part will be on Natural.

Can any one extend this why we need to use both Cobol as weel as Natural

Cant we do the same Using only Natural or Using only Cobol

As per my Knowledge In Natural we can code all the things equivalent to Cobol and Cobol can Do the same Except some Online Part as we need CICS for that

can any one differentiate between these two languages apart from basic differences (Like Natural is 4th Gl, For Cobol Online Part is difficult...........)

ofer71 · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 1959 Location: Israel

You can do the same in both languages. However, each language has its own strengths. For example: COBOL is better with mathematical and business functions. There are only basic functions in NATURAL, but it's the easiest language to interact with ADABAS, which is (IMHO) the best database ever.

naveen_desireddy · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Hyderabad, India

naveen_desireddy wrote: As i have worked in almost 3 projects, I found that every where Natural & Cobol both have been used as most of the Database will be in ADABAS, and calculation part will be on Cobol and the Other part will be on Natural.

Can any one extend this why we need to use both Cobol as well as Natural

Cant we do the same Using only Natural or Using only Cobol

As per my Knowledge In Natural we can code all the things equivalent to Cobol and Cobol can Do the same Except some Online Part as we need CICS for that

can any one differentiate between these two languages apart from basic differences (Like Natural is 4th Gl, For Cobol Online Part is difficult...........)

utkarshtewari · Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Pune

Hi.....
Have worked on both but i found Natural/ADABAS much easier to code and understand. Can someone highlight a few points where COBOL takes lead.

Ofer71 : If you can just elaborate on "COBOL is better with mathematical and business functions" with examples.

Thanks,
Utkarsh

ofer71 · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 1959 Location: Israel

utkarshtewari -

The first thing to remember is that NATURAL is interpreted while COBOL is compiled. There is a huge performance advantage to COBOL when running batch processes.

Another advantage is that COBOL "speaks" with DB2 more naturally. Indeed, you can access DB2 from NATURAL, but it's somewhat cumbersome.

Regarding the functions: Simply compare the bumber of built in functions in NATURAL and the number of built in functions + LE Callable Services available for COBOL. You'll get the picture.

I still agree with you, however, that working with NATURAL/ADABAS is like cutting a butter with a knife, while working in COBOL is a little harder.

O.

utkarshtewari · Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 6 Location: Pune

Thanks O..

dr_te_z · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:28 pm Post subject:

How about costs.
How much longer are you busy developing & testing a CICS-COBOL or a IMS-MPP-COBOL program versus an online Natural program?

more than my 2 cents :D I guess

ofer71 · Joined: 27 Dec 2005 Posts: 1959 Location: Israel

How about the license costs SAG charges lately? :(