Murach's Mainframe COBOL

This book is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to develop structured COBOL programs for IBM mainframes. It works if you have no programming experience. It works if you've developed programs with another language like Java, C#, or Visual Basic. And it works if you've developed COBOL programs on a PC, but you've never learned COBOL at the professional level that's needed on a mainframe.

Today, most companies don't use COBOL for developing new applications. That's why it is often called a "dying language." However, there is still a large backlog of "legacy" COBOL programs that are running on mainframes. Those programs need to be maintained. And this is the only book that shows you the techniques that were used to develop those programs.

In summary, then, this is the right book for anyone who needs to use structured COBOL on a mainframe. That includes maintenance programmers who need to maintain legacy COBOL programs. That also includes new application developers who need to interface with legacy COBOL programs.

Section 1: The essence of COBOL programming

In chapters 1, 2, and 3, you’ll learn how to code and test simple programs that prepare reports. In chapters 4 and 5, you’ll learn how to design, code, and test more complicated programs using the best structured programming techniques. In chapter 6, you’ll learn the mainframe skills that you need for working with data.

Section 2: Other COBOL essentials

In this section, you’ll learn how to work with intrinsic functions, dates, characters, tables, copy members, and subprograms. You can read these chapters in sequence or in any order you prefer. If you’re using this book on the job, this means it’s easy to learn new skills whenever you need them.

Section 3: COBOL for working with files

In this section, you’ll learn how to work with the three types of COBOL file organizations: sequential, indexed, and relative. Because file processing (not database processing) is a major feature of many mainframe programs, these are essential skills for COBOL programmers.

Section 4: The IBM mainframe COBOL environment

When you work on a mainframe, learning how to use COBOL is just part of the challenge. You also need to learn your way around the IBM mainframe environment. So in this section, you’ll learn:

• how to use ISPF, TSO, and JCL for compiling and testing programs
• how to use VSAM Access Method Services (AMS) for working with indexed files
• how CICS and DB2 work with COBOL for interactive and database programs
• how to become an effective maintenance programmer

Like all our books, this one has features that you won't find in competing books. But here are three that are specific to this book:

• In chapters 4 and 5, you'll learn the structured programming methods that have been used in the best mainframe shops. Paul Noll, a COBOL trainer and consultant, pioneered these methods way back in the mid-1970s. They became an ad hoc standard in many mainframe shops by the mid-1980s. And they've been making life easier for COBOL programmers ever since.
• Besides teaching standard COBOL, which can be run on any computer system, ours is the only book that shows you how to work in the IBM mainframe environment. And that's where almost all of the COBOL code today is running.
• 14 full programs and dozens of coding segments illustrate best coding practices. Whether you're a beginner or a professional, you'll boost your productivity by using these as models when you create or maintain COBOL programs.

Since this book teaches mainframe COBOL, it is designed for use with an IBM mainframe. That means that it is best used in a training program or environment that gives you free access to an IBM mainframe. Then, you can compile and test your programs on that mainframe.

If you don’t have access to an IBM mainframe, you can still use this book to learn how to write COBOL programs. You just won’t be able to practice what you’ve learned until you’re on the job.

Although Murach's Mainframe COBOL is a great first book for learning how to develop and maintain COBOL programs on a mainframe, you'll learn in section 4 that there's a lot more to it than that. Depending on your assignments, here are other mainframe books that may be useful, and all of them interface easily with our Mainframe COBOL book:

Murach's OS/390 and z/OS JCL

This book presents the background skills that every programmer needs for working with an IBM mainframe. That includes using the operating system's JCL (Job Control Language), working with VSAM files by using AMS (Access Method Services), and much more.

Murach's CICS for the COBOL Programmer

This book shows you how to develop interactive COBOL programs on an IBM mainframe by using CICS (Customer Information Control System). Today, legacy CICS applications are still widely-used by government and financial institutions.

DB2 for the COBOL Programmer, Part 1

DB2 for the COBOL Programmer, Part 2

DB2 is IBM's database management system, and this two-part series shows how to develop COBOL programs that use DB2. Part 1 presents the basic skills that all DB2 programmers need. Part 2 presents the advanced skills that are associated with a senior programmer or programmer/analyst.

MVS TSO, Part 1

MVS TSO, Part 2

Part 1 of this series shows how to use the ISPF text editor to develop your programs. Part 2 presents the TSO commands that underlie ISPF and shows you how to use these commands on their own and in CLIST and REXX procedures.