Teach Yourself Cobol in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself...) [Paperback]

Mo Budlong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997 | Series: Sams Teach Yourself...

Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 21 Days provides the necessary information needed to successfully enter the next century. You'll find complete coverage of the syntax, standards, and programming of COBOL-putting you on the right track to the Year 2000. With the help of a programming expert, you will master the features of COBOL and learn to update legacy codes and debug your applications. The step-by-step examples in Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 21 Days guide you down the road of understanding and progress.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Q: Who programs with COBOL? A: Numerous corporations and nearly every beginning and student programmer--and this is the ideal tutorial to get them started. Following the very popular 21-day lesson plan, this book shows the beginner how to implement the s "Each chapter features review questions and exercises--great for self-teaching and concept reinforcement. Includes shaded syntax boxes, handy references, and real-world examples of everyday programming code. Line-by-line programming analyses help readers". Covers COBOL. -- SAMS Pub. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

With Teach Yourself COBOL in 21 Days, Second Edition. COBOL programming techniques are presented in a logical and easy-to-follow sequence that helps you really understand the principles involved in developing programs. The reader begins with learning the basics to write a first program and then moves on to adding voice, music, sound and graphics. - Guides readers through a system in which they will learn COBOL in a reasonable amount of time

- The year 2000 problem is driving heavy demand for COBOL programmers

- The Teach Yourself...format is a proven winner

Product Details

• Paperback: 1056 pages
• Publisher: Sams Publishing; 2 Sub edition (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672311372
• ISBN-13: 978-0672311376
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,692,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent "launch point" for those entering a COBOL environ., May 26, 1999

By 

Jim Kilthau (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Cobol in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself...) (Paperback)

I've been recommending this book to my clients for over a year now. "COBOL in 21 days" Has provided a solid foundation for both new programmers and those that are transitioning from current languages to legacy systems.

The authors approach is to lay down the fundamental structure of the language, then give you a series of "hands on" excercises that perform most of the functions that you find in a business environment. You become "COBOL competent" very quickly.

One of the great things about the code that you learn is that it adheres to excellent programming standards. The examples are structured and tend to be much better quality then the code that I usually run into at my client sites.

There is a Year 2000 specific section that provides some great "real world" help. I was able to use some of these tips in a Y2K course that I wrote for Learning Tree International.

Not only do I recommend this book for beginner programmers, but it is also a great resource for COBOL pros who can some of the many "canned" routines that are detailed in the book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Learn unstructured ANSI 74 (24 year old) COBOL in 21days., September 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Teach Yourself Cobol in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself...) (Paperback)

This book teaches you ANSI 74 unstructured COBOL. ANSI 85 COBOL (which is now 13 years old) is mentioned but not used in coding examples. The ANSI 89 addition to the standard (instrinsic functions) is not covered at all. Modularity and encapsulation can be done quite well even in '74 COBOL but the reader is completely uneducated after finishing this book. And the reader would never guess that most modern COBOL compilers (including new IBM mainframes) support complete object orientation and that it is fully included in the forthcoming ANSI standard. If you want to maintain old code on IBM mainframes, this book will get you by. Otherwise, even the most diligent reader would be unfit to code at every COBOL installation I have ever seen.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good beginner level cobol introduction, October 23, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself Cobol in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself...) (Paperback)

I majored in C.S. in the 80's but never took COBOL. While the book doesn't cover any advanced topics, it provides a solid foundation of COBOL knowledge. An experienced programmer with no knowledge of COBOL should be able to make it through this book in about two weeks (there are actually 7 bonus days on top of the 21 primary lessons). If you know who Bjarn Stroustrup is, this book is probably not for you. If you want an introduction to programming, or know some programming and want to learn COBOL fundamentals, this is a pretty good buy. I bought this book last spring ('98) and now work in a COBOL shop.