Okay, well I am graduating from college as a Computer Science major and we were taught the usual C++, Java, etc... but obviously we never got much into the ancient languages. However, the job I got is part of a team converting a companies' applications from COBOL to Java. So, I would like to learn as much COBOL as possible in 2 weeks. Does anyone know of any good tutorials out there that can teach such an outdated language? Note that I have googled for some and got some okay results, but nothing that looks particularly wonderful for learning business level COBOL.<p>Also, if anyone else has been in a similar situation, I would be very interested to hear about your experiences.<p>Thank you!
I actually did know COBOL once upon a time. There was an organization called "Business Professionals of America" that did a programming contest for kids in High School. I can proudly say that in 1996 I was the 2nd best COBOL programmer under 18 in Texas. ;-)<p>This is actually a very good book on COBOL, and the one that I used to learn at the time:<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/COBOL-80s-J-Wayne-Spence/dp/0314632905" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/COBOL-80s-J-Wayne-Spence/dp/0314632905</a><p>The hardest thing is getting your head around COBOL's basic structure as it comes from a branch of the programming languages tree that died out long ago. Good luck. :-)
Don't.<p>Sorry... Though your questions are different, I decided to tell you this anyway. I've done similar work in the past and I certainly don't recommend it. Please ask around (not the questions you are asking now) before going ahead with this.
If you are going to take a job in which one of the requirements is migrating COBOL apps, your skills will not transfer to a new job; you're just going to waste your time learning a dead language. If you're just graduating, a huge lesson to learn is that you should take jobs that, all else being equal, allow you to advance your career. Ask yourself: "Is having COBOL on my resume going to help me over the next 30 years?"<p>Life is long, you are young, and the decisions you make today affect the rest of your life (perhaps more now than in five years).