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Getting Started with Mainframe COBOL

by Tim Slate

This course serves as an introduction to programming in COBOL, especially on the Mainframe, through use of a real-world example program.

What you'll learn

COBOL seems to have more lives than a herd of cats. The death of COBOL has been touted for years - nay, decades. Yet, according to some estimates, there are well over 200 BILLION lines of COBOL code out there - and more code is being generated every day. In this course, Getting Started with Mainframe COBOL, you will learn many of the basics of the oft underestimated language that is COBOL by using it to solve a real-world business request. First, you'll learn all about the history of COBOL. Next, you'll explore the COBOL program structure. Finally, you'll wrap up this course by learning about data types and then trying your hand at writing a real-world COBOL program. By the end of this course, you'll understand the basics of COBOL, including being able to successfully write your own programs.

About the author

Tim Slate has been programming professionally for over 20 years, beginning not-professionally in the 1980s when he was 10. He’s written in BASIC (VB and “1980s” BASIC), Assembly for various CPUs, C/C++, Ada, Java, COBOL, Ideal, Perl, RPGII, and other languages, on platforms from PCs to Mainframes. He’s created his own languages, but for the good of society, they have been lost to the annals of time. Tim taught night classes three semesters at Keene State College, owned a small retail store, ac... more

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