COBOL's a lot simpler in that the words are (should be) more expressive, but as it's less powerful than C it's less terse and there's a lot more reading to do.

COBOL's a lot simpler in that the words are (should be) more expressive, but as it's less powerful than C it's less terse and there's a lot more reading to do. So the ability to understand a program isn't necessarily better in COBOL than in C.