Primarily, the irritating verbosity, which still exists in modern cobol. In addition, it has many frustrating features and misfeatures, which may have made sens

Primarily, the irritating verbosity, which still exists in modern cobol. In addition, it has many frustrating features and misfeatures, which may have made sense at the time, but definitely don't now. Modern COBOL has much of the same, but at least there are alternatives to many of the more awkward bits.