1 comments about Visual Basic for Cobol Programmers/Book and Disk.

1. This book was helpful when I took a semester-long course on Visual Basic. I used it while doing the homework assignments. Used it mostly for specific examples and to clarify details in the primary course workbook (particularly when my 25+ years of COBOL thinking kept me from comprehending the VB way to do things). The index and table of contents were adequate for searching for examples and explanations.

2 comments about IMS for the Cobol Programmer, Part 2: Data Communications and Message Format Service.

1. i did not get the answer for my doub, that is as u have described in the book ims dc about the date accepting system literals. but the never told how to get 4 digit year field format. i would appreciate if u would provide the answer for the above. thank you.



2. A must read for every COBOL programmer who handles IMS databases. A very Handy reference.

5 comments about UNIX System Programming (2nd Edition).

1. If you're looking for a comprehensive (but not exhaustive) and pedagogical introductory text on system programming, and find yourself intimidated by other books, such as Stevens' Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment, then this would be a wise choice. The explanations are clear and it has lots of simple examples to illustrate the concepts. After you work through this book, you'll be ready for the more serious and exhaustive texts (like Stevens).



2. it's a good book,clearly explained. if you are new to unix system programming, this is a book for you. but it's might be better if source code is included.



3. A good technical book; A stepping-stone into Advanced UNIX Programming by Steven's.

   As an alternative... I purchased Practical UNIX Programming by Kay A. Robbins, Steven Robbins, Kay, Ret Robbins. It is better priced and hardcover. The Contents are compatible to the above book and full source-code is on the Web.




4. After reading more I decided to keep the book. I changed my rating from two to four stars. I want to be fair to the book; It is much better than initially stated. In terms of the source code... it is not too much of an issue; the code is compact and to the point (still better if they provided the code).

   I did buy Practical UNIX Programming and are using both books. Along with UNIX System V Network Programming by Rago, I have the necessary stepping-stones into the Steven's Books (TCP 1-3, Advanced UNIX, UNIX Network Programming Vol1-2, etc).




5. What can I say? If someone would even consider returning a book (and jumping to a two-star review) because the authors didn't make the source code available and feels it a waste of time to type and debug the code then perhaps this individual should consider a different career than programming -- one that requires less typing.

1 comments about IMS for the Cobol Programmer, Part 1: Data Base Processing With Ims/Vs and Dl/I Dos/Vs.

1. If you're an applications programmer and need to learn DL/I to extract information from IMS hierarchical databases, this is the book for you. Don't let the size fool you; you can get through it in under a fortnight. This book contains the most of what any applications programmer working in the mainframe environment will need for all applications.

3 comments about Cics for the Cobol Programmer: An Introductory Course (CICS for the COBOL Programmer).

1. This book, along with Lowe's Part 2: Advanced course, is on my desk at all times. I have been a mainframe programmer for 37 years but altho I have done lots of interactive programming, somehow I never used CICS. I am currently doing lots of Year 2000 changes to CICS systems and these books have made it possible for me to do so. If you want less basic detail, he also has written The CICS Programmer's Desk Reference which is for the programmer with real CICS training. All three of these books are seen on shelves in any IS shop so check 'em out to see which you want



2. I took two years of COBOL, then JCL, and now CICS. Both my JCL and CICS classes used Lowe's books. The layout of these books is bad. The books are just plain ugly. These books are just as text oriented as COBOL itself. The few pictures that are included are hard to understand. In general, almost all of CICS is covered, but it takes time to figure what is being covered. The manufacturing process for these books is bad, too. The books are cut lop-sided, to the point where some of the text is lost. I had no page numbers because they were cut off. A friend of mine had pages where the left side of the page was cut off. BAD QUALITY.



3. I found the book informative and simple. Good for a beginner, which is its objective. I have one complaint and I hope the author and/or the publisher will read this. In many instances with few exceptions the references to the charts, illustrations and examples require turning a page instead of being able to stay on the same page while looking at the graphic. At first this was a minor irritation, but it grew to be a MAJOR FAILING. Help, please in the next edition of this book put the explanation on the same page as or the opposite page from the illustration or example that it describes.

No comments about Elements of COBOL web programming with Micro Focus Net Express.

5 comments about COBOL Unleashed.

1. This is one of the few books that contains anything about IDMS. All other IDMS books are out of print and hard to find. I authored Chapter 23 - The IDMS Chapter.



2. Pay attention to where this books says it does not teach programming.

   _ALL_ code examples assume familiarity with COBOL and familiarity with programming. Most are simply free-form code examples designed to inform, not actual programs.

   As for a reference, if this book missed it, I didn't notice. It's already helped me on a number of issues, including covering why SECTIONs exist (something not even my compiler vendor manuals tackle, and I've certainly never seen anywhere else).

   I've seen a few typos, but they were obvious (again, you need to be a programmer already to spot this stuff).

   The CD-ROM has several demo compilers and the code examples from the book. I haven't used any of them, but have read about others liking them.

   Overall, a good book and a great buy.




3. This is the most comprehensive COBOL reference that I have seen in my 20 years in the business. I bought it specifically for the IDMS chapter, but it also covers other database types. It is well organized and gets right to the point with code examples and diagrams. If I were to have only one COBOL reference this would be it.



4. The book really helped me in clearing up areas that my advanced COBOL teacher was not very clear in.

   I think it will be a good reference book for the future.




5. Hey I am team leader who is into a RE-ENGG project from IDMS TO web technologies.Can somebody tell me how good this book suits my requirement.
   Thanks in advance.

No comments about Microsoft .NET for COBOL Programmers Third Edition.

2 comments about COBOL Programmers Swing with Java.

1. Why does every Java book start with Hello World? This one doesn't. They use a bank system to illustrate the java commands. And it does it in less than 300 pages. Which means it actually is possible to read it from beginning to end. Plus it is easy to follow. It may not have all the things you can do in java but I found it to be of great help as I learn java. For cobol programmers I feel this is one to have in your library.



2. At 282 pages, this books covers a lot of ground about Java and Object Oriented Programming. There are 11 Chapters covering everything from Object Oriented Programming fundamentals to somewhat advanced subject matter like Object Oriented Development Issues. A Community National Bank Application is used to demonstrate OO Concepts such as Encapsulation, Inheritance,Polymorphism, Java classes structure, variables declaration, Java operators, decision making constructs such as: the while loop and for loop. There are also Chapters that cover topics like Arrays, file I/O, Database access and Java GUI. There are a lot of code samples followed by explanation of what the code is doing. Be carefully though, I found several errors in this book. For example, Chapter 4, StringDemo.java example, the code on line 9 System.out.println(s2.substring(10, 13) + "FUN!"); will print Jav is FUN!. To print Java is FUN!, change the substring method parameters to 10,14, i.e., System.out.println(s2.substring(10, 14) + "FUN!");
   There are also some GUI code samples that use show() method, which has been deprecated. To be fair, the number of code sample errors in this book is low and I'm not really complaining about them. I think sometimes a code sample error is a good thing because it makes you research the problem. The code samples are also available at the publisher's web site on Internet. This book also attempts to take COBOL syntax and identify compatible/similar Java syntax or concepts. I think that will be appreciated by most COBOL Programmers. This book seems to be geared towards Java 4 SE Edition, i.e., Java v1.4. Notice that the Web Based Application development is not covered by this book. The authors also assume that the reader knows about some Java IDE, such as Eclipse, or NetBeans. Bottom line, this is easy to read and to follow book that covers a lot of topics in OOP and Java. It will not make you the greatest Java Developer ever, however, it will teach you something about OO programming and how to code simple Java Apps. I would recommend this book to any COBOL Programmer who wants to learn some Java.

No comments about CICS/Vs Command Level Programming with COBOL Examples.