Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 24 Hours

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Summary: Teach Yourself COBOL in 24 Hours - from my perspective
Review: Thank you for stopping by Amazon.Com and for considering the purchase of my book. Let me take a moment to tell you about the approach I took in the book, and why this COBOL book is different from other available titles. COBOL has been around for a long time. Many other titles try to teach you the way COBOL "was". I take a different tack. I help you learn COBOL as it "is". That means that I help you make use of all of the modern techniques and functions available in the latest accepted COBOL standard. (ANSI 85, with the '89 extensions). When writing the chapters, I consulted with students and teachers of COBOL. I concentrated on creating simple explanations for those areas of the language that were reported to be confusing, or difficult to grasp. COBOL makes an excellent first language. If you are confused by the cryptic coding of other languages, and are interested in a language that is more like English, then COBOL is for you! While geared toward the beginner, with little or no prior programming experience, experienced programmers, both COBOL and non-Cobol, can gain insight and knowledge from this title. If you have been using one of the "older" COBOL compilers, and want to learn how to use some of the "newer" features of standard COBOL, then this book can help you. I use a step by step approach. Each chapter builds on the next and reinforces the lessons already learned. The book contains everything you need to learn how to program in COBOL, and comes with a full functioning COBOL compiler provided by Fujitsu. Some people wonder why they should learn COBOL. Isn't it only used on Mainframes? COBOL is used on virtually every computing platform (including PC's) as you will find as you read the book and use the tools that are included on the CD. I really enjoyed writing the book, and I know you will enjoy reading it.

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Summary: Followup -- The compiler works.
Review: With a tip from the author, I could make the compiler work. The compiler directive 'MAIN' has to be included to make the sample1 program link. With the book and a working compiler, I am happy at my progress in learning COBOL.