Mainframe, MVS and zOS Discussion

Hi,

What is the difference between COBOL and JCL?

Have you even tried to read up in the manuals? Briefly, COBOL is a programming language, JCL is not. JCL is used to infrom the mainframe of what programs you want executed, what resources are required and any conditional execution of programs. JCL, by the way, is NOT the control cards used by various programs such as DFSort or SyncSort.

One of the reasons for confusion, I believe, comes form the letter "L" in the acronym JCL, which stands for language while we 'know' that does not qualify it to be really considered as a "programming language". JCL, in a crude sense, you can say that it's the "glue" connecting the operating system to the application (program).

You can compare COBOL with Pascal, C, Fortran, JAVA as far as the "language" part of it is concerned but comparing it with JCL sounds odd. Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) is a programming language similar to English that is widely used to develop business-oriented applications in the area of commercial data processing. While JCL, as Nic has said, is used to tell the mainframe of what programs you want to execute, what resources are required and any conditional execution of the programs.

What's the difference between a box of tools and a box.

tools!

LOL! Nic is correct.

A better analogy would be:
What is the difference between a house and an apple?
In fact, a comparison of any two unrelated items works but not related items e.g. apples and oranges.