Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 21 Days (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: WOW... COBOL for the 21st century
Review: I was pleasantly surprised to find that COBOL in 21 Days covered such a wide range of functions. Although I've used COBOL for years, I had not been exposed to using it for object-oriented programming or generating HTML. It's nice to see these features, but... the true power of this course lies in it's "real world" examples that systematically build into a strong foundation of COBOL knowledge. The authors ability to present code examples with clear explanations and chapter reviews enables the reader to quickly absorb the material. I was also pleased to see that the course "really" could be completed within 21 days.

This book has become required reading for new programmers at my clients site. It has also become a point of reference for the more senior programmers. If you don't already have a COBOL compiler, don't fret as the Acucobol system on the CD is all that you'll need (including runtime, debugger, utilities, etc.)

I give this book my highest recommendation for anybody wishing to become a competent COBOL programmer

Rating:
Summary: WOW!! COBOL for the 21st century
Review: I've worked with COBOL (on many platforms) over the years and am delighted to see that Mr. Budlong's course covers many new features and technologies (HTML, GUI, OOPs etc.) that I haven't been able to do in COBOL before.

More importantly, this course provides a fast-track to "COBOL competence" that is comfortably-paced and can certainly be completed within the 21-day timeframe. The code samples that drive the course provide ALL of the COBOL fundamentals necessary to begin mastery this language. Another benefit is that the samples are VERY WELL written and will help the beginner to get off to a good start by writing in clear and elegant style.

COBOL in 21 Days is an important reference in my clients library and is "required reading" for all new programmers. I give this book my highest recommendation and would urge anyone wishing to become a solid COBOL Programmer to make this his/her starting point.

Rating:
Summary: good book for the language
Review: this is a good book to start learning cobol with he starts with the basics and moves on to the more advanced topics. However it really only teaches the language itself and not the best ways to structure programs etc. Experience in programing is what is really needed.