Murach's Mainframe COBOL

I bought this book, in part, because of a job that I interviewed for (mostly COBOL on IBM mainframe, with CICS, DB2, TSO, etc.). I spent 15+ years programming COBOL in the past and wanted to review.This is a very good book for that. It is clear, reasonably concise, has good examples, and is as complete as can be expected for a single book. It also doesn't contain the irritating commentary that certain other (which we will not name!) so-called COBOL manuals have.Very helpful book, and I am very glad I bought it. COBOL is not a dead language, as I had been led to believe.

This is a very good piece of work.The book is good for those who have already a deep background in programming but are completely new to COBOL (like me), as well as for those who are completely new to programming in general.It is organized by task in a series of "How to ..." short sections, which provide the reader with complete information about specific topics in the matter of COBOL programming. If you like reading (like me) and not just jumping back and forth from one section to the other, this book provides a clear, well-written, consistent and enjoyable reading. If you have no time for reading the book from the beginning to the end, you can easily find the chapter you need to read, becase as I said before the "How to ..." organization effectively drives you to the things you need. However, I would anyway suggest to read the entire book because it gives a very good path for learning COBOL in a structured way.The book provides insights about programming on IBM z/OS systems, but also gives some information about COBOL programming with regards to other platforms. However, information about COBOL on non-mainframe platforms is often provided with focus on the differences with the IBM mainframe, so this is not the best choice if you're looking for COBOL programming on .NET or other (but ... is there anyone who writes in COBOL out of a mainframe shop ?).Last but not least, there are tons of good examples in this book. For an experienced Java programmer like me, it is quite easy to understand that these examples come from an experienced COBOL programmer, because it is made clear that only an experienced COBOL programmer can get this very "clean" code out of an "ancient" language that has only global variables, poor or no support for data types (don't tell me that PICs are data types, please) and no object orientation (yes, I know that there is also an object oriented version of COBOL ... but again, is anyone using it ?).This reading is being for me the same as it was Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in Java" ten years ago ...

Learn COBOL, the book although thick, I am sure there is a lot to learn, but it reads easy enough to understand.

I've been using Mike Murach books as reference for over 10 years. His books are great! I always look for his books before I buy any others.

Needed mor detail on VSAM fils. It good overall.

Almost the bible of COBOL programming books. Yes, there are others, but I like this of all the others. A great reference book, helpful guide.

I love this book it is a great introduction to COBOL the IBM mainframe environment. I mainly work in C on Linux and Windows computers, but I love COBOL also though I am still learning COBOL I can see it has many benifits particularly for use in mainframe systems.This is the only book on COBOL I have owned and I bet it is the best.

Excellent product!

This is a half-decent book on mainframe COBOL programming, and at least gives the basic structure of how to put together working programs.But it assumes far too much, by not giving examples of much of what is vaunted within the pages. The index doesn't help either, which is a shame, as I feel many people will buy this as the "Bible" of mainframe COBOL programming.Nice try, but needs a lot more detail, to be honest!

Clear and comprehensive with good examples and explanation.The paired pages format works well with general information about a topic on the left hand page and key points on the right.An excellent guide and reference.

Acquisterò altri libri dello stesso editore. Sono rimasto molto soddisfatto della tecnica espositiva e del metodo di utilizzare le pagine a "coppia".A sinistra la spiegazione dettagliata dell'argomento trattato, a destra la versione sintetica. In tal modo noto che riesco a memorizzare più facilmente e rapidamente i concetti chiave.Molto soddisfatto.

Conviene conocer esta tecnología, porque hay muchos desarrollos, y cada vez menos profesionales

Llegó como siempre en un par de días. El libro es una maravilla, una auténtica biblia de COBOL, y el precio más que adecuado.