Cobol (Cobol) (v. 1) [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131401793
• ISBN-13: 978-0131401792
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,554,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for beginning COBOL but lacks Mainframe focus, August 3, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: COBOL: From Micro to Mainframe (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

I have taught COBOL for a number of years and have always used Grauer Villar & Buss. This new edition, although commendable in adding Microfocus Cobol, lacks true Mainframe focus. A few years ago there was an accompanying small book that greatly added to the mainframe concepts - but is no longer available. However, the flow of the book, the explanations, examples and summaries have proved to be an excellent textbook for professional training, especially when accompanied with appropriate JCL and CICS textbooks. Still above all, I rate this at the top of COBOL books - but don't agree with the authors assumption that the mainframe is no longer a relevant part of COBOL programming.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource for beginning/intermediate Cobol programmers, November 20, 2001

By 

J. W. Johnson (Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: COBOL: From Micro to Mainframe (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This book is a great resource for the beginning or intermediate Cobol programmer. Very clear explanations and abundant examples aid understanding. The authors favor a "hands on" approach which encourages the reader to try out the concepts in each chapter. The example code is included on the CD (along with the input files for the exercises) which is a great timesaver.

The authors are careful about pointing out differences between Cobol-85 and Cobol-74 as they arise. While this may seem to be a minor point with the advent of the latest Cobol standard, it is helpful to those who work with older systems that are not fully Cobol-85 compliant.

The Fujitsu Cobol environment comes along with the book. The Fujitsu compiler is a big improvement over the DOS-based compiler and editor that came with the second edition. An appendix provides some step-by-step examples to help the reader get up to speed with the compiler.

The book is weighted more towards micro computers - if you are working in a mainframe environment, you will probably want to find additional references on JCL, CICS, etc.

The book may not be the best choice for someone who has no previous programming experience, but for readers who have some background in programming (in any language) and are interested in learning Cobol, this book & compiler set is the best resource I've seen for Cobol at this level. I strongly recommend it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent beginner book, August 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: COBOL: From Micro to Mainframe (Paperback)

I teach programming at the university level and have recently switched to this publication as the main text for my classes. The book provides fantastic examples and explains concepts at a level a beginning programmer can understand. As with any text, the solutions are available in the instructor's manual (available from the publisher). The extensive support provided by the publisher's web site and by the authors themselves is unmatched. As this book was written to be instructive, it lacks somewhat as a reference guide, but is still a valuable resource for any junior programmer.