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Beginning COBOL for Programmers by Michael Coughlan

About the Author

Michael Coughlan is a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick, Ireland where he teaches e-business, legacy systems, and business oriented programming languages. He has been responsible for teaching COBOL to University of Limerick students since 1980.

Michael wrote the COBOL quick reference for the book Year 2000 in a Nutshell by Norman Shakespeare (O’Reilly, 1998), and he created the free online learning resource for COBOL at www.csis.ul.ie/COBOL . This resource is used by students and instructors all over the world, and notes from the website have been translated into a number of languages.

Taught by Cistercian monks in the Knockmealdown mountains of County Waterford, Michael received a B.A. (Mod) in History from Trinity College Dublin, a Graduate Diploma in Computing from the University of Limerick, and an M.Sc. in Information Technology from the University of Ulster.

Who This Book Is For

This book is aimed at programmers familiar with other languages who are curious about COBOL or are working with COBOL legacy systems or who wish to take advantage of COBOL job opport unities. To get the most from this book, you must have some knowledge of programming. It is not an introductory programming text.

How You Should Read This Book

If you are using this book to learn to program in COBOL, rather than just dipping into it to find out how a particular construct or verb works, then you should read the book in the chapter order provided. Many chapters foreshadow or preview material that is dealt with more completely in succeeding chapters. If you read the chapters out of order, you may find the discussion confusing. However, if you wish, you may skip the first chapter, because it deals with such matters as the history of COBOL, the importance for COBOL, and the characteristics of COBOL and COBOL applications. Even if you do skip Chapter 1, you may find it rewarding to read it later. It should provide a ready source of amm unition with which to respond to any expressions of amazement that you are learning COBOL.

About the Technical Reviewer

Massimo Nardone holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Salerno, Italy. He worked as a PCI QSA and senior lead IT security/cloud architect for many years, and currently he leads the Security Consulting Team for Hewlett Packard Finland. With more than 19 years of work experience in SCADA, cloud computing, IT infrastructure, mobile, security, and web technology for both national and international projects, Massimo has worked as a project manager, software engineer, re[[search engineer, chief security architect, and software specialist. He worked as visiting lecturer and supervisor for exercises at the Networking Laboratory of the Helsinki University of Technology (Helsinki University of Technology TKK became a part of Aalto University) for the course “Security of Communication Protocols.” He holds four international patents (PKI, SIP, SAML, and Proxy areas). This book is dedicated to Pia, Luna, Leo, and Neve, who are my reasons for living.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to Steve Anglin, who started the whole process of my writing this book, and to Matthew Moodie, Anamika Panchoo, Melissa Maldonado, and Massimo Nardone, the team of editors at Apress whose work was so invaluable in shaping the text. I would especially like to thank Tiffany Taylor for her excellent suggestions and for all her work in eliminating my errors. Any errors that remain are my responsibility, but without her help, there would be many more of them.

I thank my family for all their support. I thank Redmond O’Brien, who acted as a patient sounding board for ideas, and Dermot Sh inners-Kennedy, for our discussions about COBOL. The results of those discussions find many a reflection in this book. Finally, I thank Annette McElligott (HOD) for her support and encouragement in this endeavor.

Thanks also are due to Bill Qualls and Caliber Data Training for granting permission to use their BigDecimal Java example program.

The following acknowledgment is from American National Standard Programming Language COBOL, X3.23-1985: Any organization interested in reproducing the COBOL report and specifications in whole or in part, using ideas taken from this report as the basis for an instruction manual or for any other purpose is free to do so. However, all such organizations are requested to reproduce this section as part of the introduction to the document. Those using a short passage, as in a book review, are requested to mention 'COBOL' in acknowledgment of the source, but need not quote this entire section.

COBOL is an industry language and is not the property of any company or group of companies, or of any organization or group of organizations.

NO warranty, expressed or implied, is made by any contributor or by the COBOL Committee as to the accuracy and functioning of the programming system and language. Moreover, no responsibility is assumed by any contributor, or by the committee, in connection therewith.

Procedures have been established for the maintenance of COBOL. Inquiries concerning the procedures for proposing changes should be directed to the Executive Committee of the Conference on Data Systems Languages.