They both have a strong bias towards tabular, instead of pointer-based
data structures, and both have a strong data-processing bent:
- special control flow structures for record processing
- can compute with either memory or disk representations
- substantial support for data description and formatting
- many defaults making static dataflows (relatively :-) concise.
On the other hand, COBOL attempted to be semantically legible to a
lay english speaker, whereas Perl makes no bones about being
expert friendly.
-Dave
[Old humor warning!]
One supposes that the "ADD 1 TO COBOL GIVING COBOL." programmer
will write statements of the form "PERFORM WITH CURRENT-CONTINUATION
CALCULATE-PAY ON THIS-EMPLOYEE FOR LAST-PERIOD GIVING RESULT USING
CONTRAVARIANT-POLYMORPHISM."