I agree C++ and Java are verbose, yet COBOL is at least an order of magnitude more verbose, since it lacks many abstractions. I have programmed in C++ and Java,

I agree C++ and Java are verbose, yet COBOL is at least an order of magnitude more verbose, since it lacks many abstractions. I have programmed in C++ and Java, and I admit I have not programmed in COBOL, but I migrated COBOL data files to databases and it was a PITA.