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We can debate and dispute this, but I'd rather propose: take a closer look at how this is handled in COBOL, and you'll re-evaluate.

In shortest words: variable declaration is also used as I/O format specification. Pretty much all of IO is just reading into a buffer, and the values are automatically mapped for your use. Sure you can use the same method in pretty much every general-purpose language (mapping C structs etc), but here it comes just natural.

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How about an example? Present a short COBOL program that is actually more concise than a (say) Java program? The example presented in this blog article seems a likely candidate, and yet would be much shorter in modern languages.

If you want to make the case that COBOL is still a good DSL for its niche (report generation?), it seems like there should be some straightforward examples. This is super easy to do with the aforementioned SQL or Matlab.

Wrong measure. COBOL is verbose (and I hate this), but the fit-for-purpose should not be measured in LOC. It's how natural it is to perform the work, and how easy it's for your successor to maintain your program.

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