COBOL is extremely good at what it does. I know of no other language that even approaches it. * It has a data division which lets you describe nested, repeatin

COBOL is extremely good at what it does. I know of no other language that even approaches it. * It has a data division which lets you describe nested, repeating, and overlapping data at the byte level with a clear, unambiguous notation. * Numbers are treated as decimal values (generally) and math is likewise done in decimal, not binary. * It is profoundly cross-platform. You can take a memory-map from one architecture, slam it to disk, transfer it to another machine with a different architecture, load it into memory, and have perfect fidelity. What other languages have these properties? Yes, it is clunky as hell. It is not good for many things. However, for its intended use, it is very good.