beginning_cobol_for_programmers_preface

Beginning COBOL for Programmers Preface

COBOL Programming Language, COBOL Source File, COBOL .cbl File Extension, COBOL .cob File Extension, COBOL .cobol File Extension, COBOL Compiler, COBOL Compilation Unit, COBOL Run-time System, COBOL Environment Division, COBOL Identification Division, COBOL Procedure Division, COBOL Data Division, COBOL Configuration Section, COBOL Input-Output Section, COBOL File-Control Paragraph, COBOL I-O Control Paragraph, COBOL File Section, COBOL Working-Storage Section, COBOL Local-Storage Section, COBOL Linkage Section, COBOL Communication Section, COBOL Report Section, COBOL FD Entry (File Descriptor), COBOL SD Entry (Sort Descriptor), COBOL SELECT Statement, COBOL ASSIGN Clause, COBOL ORGANIZATION Clause, COBOL ACCESS MODE, COBOL SEQUENTIAL Access, COBOL RELATIVE Access, COBOL INDEXED Access, COBOL RECORD KEY Clause, COBOL ALTERNATE KEY Clause, COBOL DYNAMIC Access Mode, COBOL RANDOM Access Mode, COBOL KEY IS Clause, COBOL LINAGE Clause, COBOL BLOCK CONTAINS Clause, COBOL RECORD CONTAINS Clause, COBOL RECORDING MODE Clause, COBOL LABEL RECORDS Clause, COBOL CODE-SET Clause, COBOL FILE STATUS Clause, COBOL FD (File Description) Entry, COBOL FILE SECTION Variables, COBOL WORKING-STORAGE Variables, COBOL 01 Level Number, COBOL 77 Level Number, COBOL 66 Level Number, COBOL 88 Level Number (Condition Names), COBOL PIC Clause (Picture), COBOL USAGE Clause, COBOL DISPLAY Usage, COBOL COMP Usage, COBOL COMP-3 (Packed Decimal), COBOL COMP-1 (Floating Point) , COBOL COMP-2 (Floating Double) , COBOL COMP-4 Equivalent to COMP, COBOL COMP-5 (Native Binary) , COBOL SIGN SEPARATE Clause, COBOL SIGN TRAILING Clause, COBOL JUSTIFIED RIGHT Clause, COBOL SYNCHRONIZED Clause, COBOL OCCURS Clause, COBOL OCCURS DEPENDING ON Clause, COBOL REDEFINES Clause, COBOL RENAMES Clause, COBOL VALUE Clause, COBOL VALUE IS Clause, COBOL FILLER Keyword, COBOL ACCEPT Statement, COBOL DISPLAY Statement, COBOL MOVE Statement, COBOL ADD Statement, COBOL SUBTRACT Statement, COBOL MULTIPLY Statement, COBOL DIVIDE Statement, COBOL COMPUTE Statement, COBOL INITIALIZE Statement, COBOL STRING Statement, COBOL UNSTRING Statement, COBOL INSPECT Statement, COBOL PERFORM Statement, COBOL PERFORM UNTIL, COBOL PERFORM VARYING, COBOL PERFORM THRU, COBOL EXIT Statement, COBOL STOP RUN Statement, COBOL GOBACK Statement, COBOL EVALUATE Statement, COBOL WHEN Clause (EVALUATE), COBOL CONTINUE Statement, COBOL NEXT SENTENCE Statement, COBOL IF Statement, COBOL ELSE Clause, COBOL END-IF Statement, COBOL GO TO Statement, COBOL ALTER Statement (Obsolete), COBOL SORT Statement, COBOL MERGE Statement, COBOL RELEASE Statement (for SORT), COBOL RETURN Statement (for SORT), COBOL SEARCH Statement, COBOL SEARCH ALL (Binary Search), COBOL CALL Statement, COBOL CANCEL Statement, COBOL LINKAGE SECTION Variables, COBOL USING Clause (in Procedure Division), COBOL EXIT PROGRAM Statement, COBOL ENTRY Statement (Obsolete), COBOL COPY Statement, COBOL REPLACE Directive, COBOL EJECT Directive, COBOL SKIP Directive, COBOL SERVICE RELOAD (IBM Extension, COBOL INTRINSIC FUNCTIONS, COBOL FUNCTION Keyword, COBOL CURRENT-DATE Function, COBOL NUMVAL Function, COBOL NUMVAL-C Function, COBOL WHEN-COMPILED Function, COBOL RANDOM Function, COBOL REM Function, COBOL LENGTH Function, COBOL MAX Function, COBOL MIN Function, COBOL MOD Function, COBOL SUBSTRING Function, COBOL UPPER-CASE Function, COBOL LOWER-CASE Function, COBOL NATIONAL-OF Function, COBOL DISPLAY-OF Function, COBOL TEST Function (in some compilers, COBOL EXAMINE Statement (Old name of INSPECT), COBOL CLASS Condition, COBOL ALPHABETIC Class Condition, COBOL ALPHANUMERIC Class Condition, COBOL NUMERIC Class Condition, COBOL JUSTIFIED Clause (in PIC), COBOL SYNCHRONIZED Clause repeated, COBOL ON SIZE ERROR Clause, COBOL ON OVERFLOW Clause, COBOL ON EXCEPTION Clause, COBOL INVALID KEY Clause, COBOL END-ADD Statement (in COBOL 2002+, COBOL END-SUBTRACT Statement, COBOL END-MULTIPLY Statement, COBOL END-DIVIDE Statement, COBOL END-COMPUTE Statement, COBOL END-PERFORM Statement, COBOL END-READ Statement, COBOL END-WRITE Statement, COBOL END-REWRITE Statement, COBOL END-DELETE Statement, COBOL END-RETURN Statement, COBOL END-SEARCH Statement, COBOL END-IF repeated, COBOL END-STRING Statement, COBOL END-UNSTRING Statement, COBOL END-INSPECT Statement, COBOL END-ACCEPT Statement, COBOL END-DISPLAY Statement, COBOL In-Line PERFORM, COBOL Nested Programs, COBOL END PROGRAM Header, COBOL CALL BY CONTENT, COBOL CALL BY REFERENCE, COBOL CALL BY VALUE, COBOL INITIAL Program Attribute, COBOL RECURSIVE Program Attribute, COBOL EXPORT and IMPORT (Some compilers support, COBOL ENTRY POINTS in Program, COBOL Debugging Lines (D in col 7), COBOL Comment Lines (*) in col 7, COBOL Continuation Lines (- in col 7), COBOL Fixed Format Source Columns, COBOL Column 7 Indicators, COBOL Column 72 Limit, COBOL Free Format (COBOL 2002+) , COBOL *CONTROL Compiler Directive, COBOL *CBL Compiler Directive, COBOL $ SET Compiler Directive (IBM), COBOL ADV Compiler Option, COBOL SSRANGE Compiler Option, COBOL APOST Compiler Option, COBOL RENT Compiler Option, COBOL MAP Compiler Option, COBOL OPTIMIZE Compiler Option, COBOL NOOPTIMIZE Compiler Option, COBOL INSPECT TALLYING, COBOL INSPECT REPLACING, COBOL INSPECT CONVERTING, COBOL STRING DELIMITED BY, COBOL UNSTRING DELIMITED BY, COBOL POINTER IN STRING/UNSTRING, COBOL SUBScripting Arrays (OCCURS), COBOL OCCURS Depending On Variables, COBOL Table Handling, COBOL SEARCH VERB, COBOL SEARCH ALL VERB, COBOL SORT VERB, COBOL MERGE VERB, COBOL USE FOR DEBUGGING ON Statement, COBOL USE Global Declarative, COBOL DECLARATIVES Section, COBOL END DECLARATIVES, COBOL FILE STATUS Checking, COBOL EXTEND MODE for files, COBOL REWRITE Statement, COBOL DELETE Statement (for indexed files), COBOL START Statement (indexed file positioning), COBOL READ NEXT, COBOL READ PREVIOUS (not standard widely COBOL READ KEY Is Clause, COBOL WRITE FROM Clause, COBOL WRITE ADVANCING PAGE, COBOL WRITE AFTER ADVANCING LINES, COBOL WRITE BEFORE ADVANCING, COBOL Page-Controlled Reports (REPORT SECTION), COBOL Report Writer Feature (Obsolete in some implementations), COBOL RH, PH, PF, DE, etc. in REPORT)], [[COBOL SPECIAL-NAMES Paragraph, COBOL DECIMAL-POINT IS COMMA, COBOL CURRENCY SIGN Clause, COBOL CLASS Alphabet Name Definition, COBOL SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS, COBOL CRT STATUS Phrase (Old terminals), COBOL ADVANCING Control in WRITE, COBOL Nonnumeric Literals, COBOL Numeric Literals, COBOL PICTURE Clause (PIC), COBOL PIC 9 for digits, COBOL PIC X for alphanumeric, COBOL PIC A for alphabetic, COBOL PIC S for sign, COBOL PIC V for implied decimal, COBOL PIC P for scaling position, COBOL JUSTIFIED RIGHT Clause in PIC, COBOL BLANK WHEN ZERO Clause, COBOL ZERO SUPPRESSION, COBOL SIGN LEADING SEPARATE, COBOL SIGN TRAILING SEPARATE, COBOL USING in PROCEDURE DIVISION, COBOL GIVING/RETURNING in CALL, COBOL CANCEL Program, COBOL LINKAGE SECTION Parameters, COBOL EXTERNAL Name Clause, COBOL GLOBAL Clause for Data, COBOL COMMON Data, COBOL INITIAL Clause on Programs, COBOL IDENTIFICATION DIVISION PROGRAM-ID, COBOL AUTHOR Paragraph, COBOL INSTALLATION Paragraph, COBOL DATE-WRITTEN Paragraph, COBOL DATE-COMPILED Paragraph, COBOL SECURITY Paragraph, COBOL REMARKS Paragraph (Obsolete), COBOL Class Condition Checks, COBOL Condition-Names (88 Level), COBOL LEVEL 88 Definition, COBOL SET condition-name TO TRUE, COBOL SET condition-name TO FALSE, COBOL SET variable TO value, COBOL SET ... UP/DOWN BY value (for indexes), COBOL ACCEPT FROM DATE, COBOL ACCEPT FROM DAY, COBOL ACCEPT FROM DAY-OF-WEEK, COBOL ACCEPT FROM TIME, COBOL ACCEPT FROM COMMAND-LINE (Extension, COBOL ACCEPT FROM ENVIRONMENT (Extension, COBOL DISPLAY UPON], [COBOL DISPLAY WITH NO ADVANCING, COBOL READY TRACE (Obsolete Debug feature), COBOL USE AFTER ERROR Declarative, COBOL USE AFTER EXCEPTION Declarative, COBOL USE AFTER STANDARD Declarative, COBOL EXIT PARAGRAPH Statement, COBOL EXIT Perform CYCLE, COBOL EXIT Perform Loop

COBOL: Effective IBM Enterprise COBOL, Object-Oriented Programming for COBOL - Object-Oriented COBOL, COBOL Best Practices, COBOL FAQ, COBOL Standards (ISO COBOL-2023 - ISO/IEC 1989-2023 Standard), IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS, Deprecated / Defunct Micro Focus Visual COBOL - Visual COBOL - Managed COBOL from Micro Focus (JVM COBOL and dot NET COBOL | NET COBOL), COBOL Fundamentals, COBOL Inventor - COBOL Language Designer: 1959 by Howard Bromberg COBOL | Howard Bromberg, Norman Discount COBOL | Norman Discount, Vernon Reeves COBOL | Vernon Reeves, Jean E. Sammet, William Selden COBOL | William Selden, Gertrude Tierney COBOL | Gertrude Tierney, with indirect influence from Grace Hopper, CODASYL, ANSI COBOL, ISO/IEC COBOL; Modern COBOL - Legacy COBOL, IBM COBOL, COBOL keywords, COBOL data structures - COBOL algorithms, COBOL syntax, Visual COBOL, COBOL on Windows, COBOL on Linux, COBOL on UNIX, COBOL on macOS, Mainframe COBOL, IBM i COBOL, IBM Mainframe DevOps, COBOL Paradigms (Imperative COBOL, Procedural COBOL, Object-Oriented COBOL - COBOL OOP, Functional COBOL), COBOL syntax, COBOL installation, COBOL containerization, COBOL configuration, COBOL compilers, COBOL IDEs, COBOL development tools, COBOL DevOps - COBOL SRE, COBOL data science - COBOL DataOps, COBOL machine learning, COBOL deep learning, COBOL concurrency, COBOL history, COBOL bibliography, COBOL Glossary - Glossaire de COBOL - French, COBOL topics, COBOL courses, COBOL Standard Library, COBOL libraries, COBOL frameworks, COBOL research, Grace Hopper, COBOL GitHub, Written in COBOL, COBOL popularity, COBOL Awesome list, COBOL Versions. (navbar_cobol - see also navbar_mainframe, navbar_fortran)

Beginning COBOL for Programmers - authored by Michael Coughlan

Beginning COBOL for Programmers, 10.1007/978-1-4302-6254-1_1, © Michael Coughlan, 2014

Preface

It seems strange to be writing a book on COBOL so many years after its death was first predicted. Indeed, COBOL has had such a low profile in recent years that you might be forgiven for thinking that it had all but disappeared. The nature of our industry is such that the new and exciting always gets more airplay than the secure, the accurate, and the reliable. But while Java, C#, Ruby, Python, and Objective C have dominated our consciousness in recent times, in the background billions of lines of COBOL code have quietly gone about supporting the mission-critical applications that make the world work.

Now, after many years, awareness is increasing about COBOL and the huge body of legacy COBOL code. COBOL is mentioned more and more in magazines, in trade journals, and in newspapers. Indeed, you may be reading this book because you have noticed this activity and have become curious about COBOL. You may have wondered why this supposedly dying language is attracting attention recently. The reason is simple. There is a legacy crisis just around the corner, and stakeholders are trying to do something about it.

The problem is, so many attempts to rewrite COBOL legacy systems or replace them with off-the-shelf solutions have ended in failure that custodians of legacy systems are now wary of these approaches to modernization. Migrating the COBOL codebase to take advantage of less-expensive hardware and software is now seen as a more viable, safer, and cheaper alternative to replacement. But keeping, and even growing, the COBOL codebase requires COBOL programmers—and the COBOL workforce is aging and nearing retirement. In an effort to avert the workforce crisis, legacy system stakeholders have implemented initiatives to increase the number of new COBOL programmers entering the marketplace. COBOL implementers such as IBM and Micro Focus have introduced initiatives to encourage colleges and universities around the world to teach COBOL as part of their curriculum, training companies and in-house training groups are once more starting to provide instruction in COBOL, and employers have begun to offer a number of entry-level COBOL positions.

Over the last few years, the demand for programmers has far exceeded the supply. However, as the number of students graduating from computer science courses recovers from the year 2000 downturn, the job market is likely to become more and more competitive. In such a competitive environment, and at a time when the demand for COBOL programmers is increasing, you may find it profitable to have a résumé that includes a knowledge of COBOL.

Beginning COBOL for Programmers, 10.1007/978-1-4302-6254-1_2, © Michael Coughlan, 2014

beginning_cobol_for_programmers_preface.txt · Last modified: 2025/02/01 07:15 by 127.0.0.1

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