Cobol 85 Programming

This book is not solely concerned with the rules of COBOL. There is an art to programming: it is not enough simply to know the rules of COBOL, it is equally important to develop intelligible programs which have style and also use the best techniques available in the language. A professional approach to programming is therefore encouraged at all times throughout the book. As with a foreign language there is only one sure way to learn a programming language, and that is by exposure to many examples and plenty of practical experience. The material in this book has been organized into four parts - each part corresponding to a module (or group of modules) in the ANSI COBOL 85 standard. So far as possible, a deliberate attempt has been made to keep each part as independent as possible. However, some parts rely upon some concepts covered in previous parts, but this has been kept to a minimum. This does mean that the parts do not necessarily have to be covered in the order in which they appear in the book. As a further aid to learning, the material in the early part of the book has been organized so that COBOL programs can be written right from the start, from the first chapter onwards.
This book is suitable for COBOL courses in training centres and educational establishments (schools, colleges, polytechnics and universities) and for individuals who wish to learn the language by self-instruction. Also, practising COBOL programmers will find this book a useful reference source of the ANSI 1985 for COBOL.