Mastering Cobol

If you're working on a Y2K or euro conversion project, you already feel the
pressures of
an enormous workload and a fast-approaching deadline-you don't need to be
hampered
by uncertainties regarding COBOL, the language in which almost all legacy
programs
were written.

Mastering COBOL relieves some of the pressure, providing you with an
understanding of the language that reaches far beyond its syntax. This book
is
designed to help you meet all the challenges associated with today's legacy
code
crises, addressing COBOL issues in this practical, solution-focused context.

• Learn from concrete examples real solutions to Year 2000 and Other legacy
  code
  problem
  
• In-Depth explanations of difficult syntax
  
• Practical coverage of mainframe and other platform issues
  
• Understand How COBOL has changed and what advantages it offers

Table of contents

Introduction

Part I: The COBOL Language

Chapter 1: Introducing COBOL

Chapter 2: Overview of a COBOL Program

Chapter 3: COBOL Program Divisions

Chapter 4: COBOL Clauses and Statements

Chapter 5: Table Handling

Chapter 6: Subprograms in COBOL

Chapter 7: File I/O

Chapter 8: Sort and Merge Facilities

Chapter 9: The Report Writer Module

Chapter 10: Intrinsic Functions

Chapter 11: The COBOL Debugger

Chapter 12: COBOL Extensions

Part II: COBOL Legacy Systems

Chapter 13: Introducing Legacy Systems

Chapter 14: CICS and SQL Programming

Chapter 15: IMS Programming

Chapter 16: JCL Programming

Chapter 17: Compiling and Linking COBOL Programs

Chapter 18: Testing and Debugging COBOL Programs

Chapter 19: Understanding and Solving the Year 2000 Problem

Chapter 20: Converting Programs to Use the Euro

Chapter 21: Data Challenges

Part III: New Application Development

Chapter 22: Structured COBOL

Chapter 23: The Next COBOL Standard

Chapter 24: Object-Oriented COBOL

Chapter 25: Internal Data Representation

Chapter 26: Offloading Mainframe COBOL Development to the PC

Chapter 27: GUI COBOL Applications

Chapter 28: COBOL and Other Languages

Appendices

Appendix A: 64-Bit COBOL

Appendix B: COBOL Reserved Words

Appendix C: ASCII and EBCDIC Character Sets

Appendix D: Fujitsu COBOL Installation

Glossary

Index