Cobol - Can you recommend Enterprise Cobol training?

Author

Can you recommend Enterprise Cobol training?

Vivian

2006-06-17, 7:55 am

We're going to be moving to Enterprise Cobol soon (Finally!), from
Cobol for OS/390 & VM. We need to use the XML writer/parser, and the
new larger picture clauses for numbers. What's a good company to bring
in to do training on the differences? Anyone have any personal
experience with trainers in this area?

Thanks, Vivian

Colin Campbell

2006-06-17, 7:55 am

Vivian wrote:
> We're going to be moving to Enterprise Cobol soon (Finally!), from
> Cobol for OS/390 & VM. We need to use the XML writer/parser, and the
> new larger picture clauses for numbers. What's a good company to bring
> in to do training on the differences? Anyone have any personal
> experience with trainers in this area?
>
> Thanks, Vivian
>
>
In my opinion, there aren't enough differences to warrant paying for a
trainer to come in. I expect that would cost several hundred dollars
per programmer who attended. If your shop were still using OS/VS COBOL,
for example, it would probably be worthwhile to get a trainer in and
spend time on the many new features of newer compilers.

Instead, I would suggest applying the acronym RTFM (Read The Friendly
Manual). Select one or two of your best programmers, someone who likes
to experiment, and provide her or him with some hours to learn how to
use the features you are interested in exploiting. Let that person or
those people train the rest of you.

This implies getting the product installed, if it isn't already,
selecting the early users, and starting them to "work". The person or
persons involved will likely appreciate the chance to do on the job
training.

You should easily be able to find the manuals in PDF format on the Web.
Google, as I did, on "IBM Enterprise COBOL z/OS", and the first result
should get you to a page where you can choose the "Library" link on the
left. Download the Language Reference and Programming Guide manuals.
Using Adobe Acrobat Reader, send the manuals to a laser printer with the
duplex feature (you probably have some around - likely HP's), to get a
printed copy as good as what you'd get by ordering from IBM, for the
cost of the paper and ink. (You could, of course, print only the pages
that apply to the new features, but I've always preferred having a
complete copy.)

Larry Kahm

2006-06-24, 7:55 am

Steve Comstock of "The Trainer's Friend" has several Enterprise COBOL
courses that would undoubtedly fit your needs. Here are two that are
applicable to your stated objective:

Enterprise COBOL Update I: Essentials
Enterprise COBOL Update II: Unicode and XML Support

http://www.trainersfriend.com/

Hope that helps!

Larry Kahm
Heliotropic Systems, Inc.

"Vivian" <vsaegesser@infogix.com> wrote in message
news:1150471264.250599.29120@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> We're going to be moving to Enterprise Cobol soon (Finally!), from
> Cobol for OS/390 & VM. We need to use the XML writer/parser, and the
> new larger picture clauses for numbers. What's a good company to bring
> in to do training on the differences? Anyone have any personal
> experience with trainers in this area?
>
> Thanks, Vivian
>

Vivian

2006-06-28, 6:55 pm

Thanks, that helps. We contacted him.

Vivian

Larry Kahm wrote:[color=darkred]
> Steve Comstock of "The Trainer's Friend" has several Enterprise COBOL
> courses that would undoubtedly fit your needs. Here are two that are
> applicable to your stated objective:
>
> Enterprise COBOL Update I: Essentials
> Enterprise COBOL Update II: Unicode and XML Support
>
> http://www.trainersfriend.com/
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> Larry Kahm
> Heliotropic Systems, Inc.
>
>
>
> "Vivian" <vsaegesser@infogix.com> wrote in message
> news:1150471264.250599.29120@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

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