Category: IBM Enterprise Cobol

I write mysteries when I’m not working with assembler or playing with my dog, Rocco. I recently did an an interview with author Marcia James about my novels, the second of which contains a dog as an important part of the story. You can read about it on her site here. Order a novel (On Amazon) as a way to support the site!

There is still time to register for the free virtual conference. Starts soon. Read about it here: https://ibmzday.bemyapp.com

[IBM Z Day: Special Edition, on April 8th. Free training. Earn badges. Register Now – ibm.biz/ibmzday2025-se

Thanks so much, IBM! I am delighted.

In my spare time, I entertain myself by writing a series of mystery novels. The first novel was The Elvis Bird, and the most recent is Death of a Golden Bird. They are about a southern ornithologist who researches birds (The Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Golden Eagle) and stumbles over murders. Both novels are available on Amazon in paper and Kindle. These days, I am working on a third novel in the series. You can read more about them at dewoolbright.com .

If you would like to support this site and make an old but budding novelist happy, consider buying copies. As always, thanks for using the site.

David Woolbright

I look forward to attending the IBM TechXchange Conference in Las Vegas, Oct 21-24. I hope to see some of you there. You can learn about the conference and register here:

https://www.ibm.com/community/ibm-techxchange-conference

It has been fun to be part of the IBM Champions program this year – an honor! The IBM Champions program is taking currently taking nominations through November 30. Is there someone who helps you or answers your questions? Say thank you by nominating them to be an #IBMChampion. Tell their story to help them earn their star. You can even nominate yourself. https://developer.ibm.com/champions/

The IBM Community Festival is back soon – well worth a look. And it’s free. 5 days. 3 different geographies. IBM Community Festival 2021. Where all the experts will be: https://community.ibm.com/community/user/events/virtual-community

It was fun and and flattering to be a part of the IBM-sponsored COBOL Fridays Webcast twice over the past year. If you missed them, you can still catch the webcasts here:

https://developer.ibm.com/languages/cobol/series/cobol-fridays-webinar-videos/

IBM and the Open Mainframe Project offers software, a COBOL course, and mainframe access to programmers wanting to learn COBOL. You can still be part of the fun for free – quite an opportunity.

I’m looking forward to being on the last webcast this Friday as part of a panel discussion that wraps up the series. Hope you can tune in. The Webcast starts at 10:30 EST here. Or you can catch the replay later at your leisure.

Marist College through the Institute of Data Center Professionals (IDCP) offers a variety of mainframe-based courses and professional z/OS certificates all online. Working jointly with IBM, these worldwide programs were designed to educate personnel who are entering the field as well as those with experience in z/OS and a variety of application programming tracks including COBOL, DB2 and Assembler language.

If you are looking for specialized mainframe training online, look no further.  Fall classes start August 31, 2020.  Here is the best link for the program:  https://conta.cc/30UErq3e

For a number of years I’ve taught the two-course assembler sequence for Marist to people located around the globe. The course evolves each year and I take pride in adding new topics and videos each time I teach it. I’d love to work with you individually to master IBM Assembly language in a small-group asynchronous online setting. Together, we will work through a sequence of on-target programming assignments. At the end, you’ll have the necessary skills to begin working as an assembler programmer.  But don’t wait, classes are starting soon.

The title is a reference to one of my favorite programming language instruction texts: Learn You a Haskell for Great Good. Funny, well-written and instructive. If you want to learn a functional language, Haskell is a fine choice. I still like writing in Scheme – another functional language that’s almost as old as Cobol.

But today’s topic is Cobol, which has been in the news lately, and which has a few programmers dusting off their old textbooks and manuals.  If you want to learn Cobol or brush up on your old Cobol skills, I might be able to help. I developed an online class a few years ago to use for corporate training. Now I’ve decided to publish it for general use.

You can find it here: IBM Enterprise Cobol and as a link at the top of the home page. It was built with the idea of taking a beginner and turning them into a corporate programmer. If you have some mainframe skills already, you can skip some of the beginning lessons.

The course is divided into 5 units, and if you push hard, it’s possible to get through a unit each day – a week of corporate training.  The course comes with an extensive collection of slides – 299 in all.  There are 15 programming problems that you will need to tackle and complete if you are really wanting to learn something.

You can help me by reporting any problems you have with the site or with the material.

So, … I hope this will help you learn a Cobol for great good!