Rating: 
Summary: Excellent beginner book
Review: I teach programming at the university level and have recently switched to this publication as the main text for my classes. The book provides fantastic examples and explains concepts at a level a beginning programmer can understand. As with any text, the solutions are available in the instructor's manual (available from the publisher). The extensive support provided by the publisher's web site and by the authors themselves is unmatched. As this book was written to be instructive, it lacks somewhat as a reference guide, but is still a valuable resource for any junior programmer.
Rating: 
Summary: amazingly dissappointed
Review: I took a cobol class in which this was the text. Now I am on to an advanced level and am seeking serious supplemental material. This book has far too many grammatical errors in the examples, which causes serious problems for the beginner. The author also skims over material that needs to be covered more in depth and on occassion states that the concepts behind some of the programming are over the readers head, which left me with the feeling of being spoken over. Given all the errors in this book I have a hard time believing the author was a career programmer. This book is very expensive, probably because it contains the fujitsu compiler. For the person who truly wants to learn the language I would suggest looking at competing books first.
Rating: 
Summary: this book was terrible
Review: If I were already a seasoned programmer, or had some type of backgound in the languages, this book would have been a good refresher. That not being the case I felt like i just gave my college bookstore my hard earned $80. This text lacks focus and never goes in depth with any specific topic. The tutorial gives you little instruction when creating a program for the first time. And being that most student who are beginner programmers learn by example, this book is a pathetic excuse for killing a tree. The chapters may not have been so bad if there were more detailed focus points as well as "understandable" exercises after each chapter. Books like these are a student's worst nightmare.
Rating:
Summary: this book was terrible
Review: If I were already a seasoned programmer, or had some type of backgound in the languages, this book would have been a good refresher. That not being the case I felt like i just gave my college bookstore my hard earned $80. This text lacks focus and never goes in depth with any specific topic. The tutorial gives you little instruction when creating a program for the first time. And being that most student who are beginner programmers learn by example, this book is a pathetic excuse for killing a tree. The chapters may not have been so bad if there were more detailed focus points as well as "understandable" exercises after each chapter. Books like these are a student's worst nightmare.
Rating:
Summary: The author has rocks in his head!
Review: Some of the authors' explanations are very weak, even on some of the important points. As I read this book, I get the sinking feeling that the authors were in a hurry to get to press and thereby brushed over some topics simply because they did not take the time to address them properly. This book leaves me flat. Some of the input data in the sample problems is bad, making correct output impossible. It is clear that the authors have not run all the programs with their own sample data. At times, it's just pathetic.
Rating: 
Summary: Great resource for beginning/intermediate Cobol programmers
Review: This book is a great resource for the beginning or intermediate Cobol programmer. Very clear explanations and abundant examples aid understanding. The authors favor a "hands on" approach which encourages the reader to try out the concepts in each chapter. The example code is included on the CD (along with the input files for the exercises) which is a great timesaver.The authors are careful about pointing out differences between Cobol-85 and Cobol-74 as they arise. While this may seem to be a minor point with the advent of the latest Cobol standard, it is helpful to those who work with older systems that are not fully Cobol-85 compliant. The Fujitsu Cobol environment comes along with the book. The Fujitsu compiler is a big improvement over the DOS-based compiler and editor that came with the second edition. An appendix provides some step-by-step examples to help the reader get up to speed with the compiler. The book is weighted more towards micro computers - if you are working in a mainframe environment, you will probably want to find additional references on JCL, CICS, etc. The book may not be the best choice for someone who has no previous programming experience, but for readers who have some background in programming (in any language) and are interested in learning Cobol, this book & compiler set is the best resource I've seen for Cobol at this level. I strongly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Great resource for beginning/intermediate Cobol programmers
Review: This book is a great resource for the beginning or intermediate Cobol programmer. Very clear explanations and abundant examples aid understanding. The authors favor a "hands on" approach which encourages the reader to try out the concepts in each chapter. The example code is included on the CD (along with the input files for the exercises) which is a great timesaver. The authors are careful about pointing out differences between Cobol-85 and Cobol-74 as they arise. While this may seem to be a minor point with the advent of the latest Cobol standard, it is helpful to those who work with older systems that are not fully Cobol-85 compliant. The Fujitsu Cobol environment comes along with the book. The Fujitsu compiler is a big improvement over the DOS-based compiler and editor that came with the second edition. An appendix provides some step-by-step examples to help the reader get up to speed with the compiler. The book is weighted more towards micro computers - if you are working in a mainframe environment, you will probably want to find additional references on JCL, CICS, etc. The book may not be the best choice for someone who has no previous programming experience, but for readers who have some background in programming (in any language) and are interested in learning Cobol, this book & compiler set is the best resource I've seen for Cobol at this level. I strongly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Want information about mainframes & cobol, it's not here.
Review: This book is excellent for the Cobol language, but when it comes to talking about Mainframes, only in the title do you find the word Mainframe. I could have missed the import of the book, but when 'mainframe' is not even in the index, nor is MVS (Multiprogramming Virtual Storage), CICS (Customer Information Control System), TSO (Time Sharing Operation: a program that allows the typing of the Cobol program) JCL (Job Control Language, a batch like computer language used to link and compile and interface between the programmer and MVS). I welcome "Constructive" corrections to that fact. I truly find the title "Cobol: From Micro To Mainframe: Preparing for a New Millenium" to be misleading! Had there been a better description of the book contents, I would have not ordered the book directly from the publisher.
Rating:
Summary: Great presentation of fundamentals with many exercises.
Review: This is a textbook that I used to teach myself COBOL. Althoughit is a textbook, it is not obtuse or pompous and it is actuallysometimes funny. The new edition, however, comes with Microfocus COBOL, which get seems to get the same clear and thorough treatment as before. The examples in every chapter demonstrate the concepts well and logically build upon preceding material: almost made the self-learning process painless. More variety in the exercises would have made it a 10.
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