BOOKS FOR PROGRAMMERS

THE POWER OF COBOL - for systems developers in the 21st century

At the start of this new book by Rui de Oliveira, the questions: "Why learn COBOL? Isn't it all replaced now by .NET or Java?" are discussed by John Billman, product director of Micro Focus Net Express.

First, he says, if you have a bank account, an insurance policy, a pension or a loan, the chances are the administration and control of your personal finances will be performed in COBOL - it is an integral part of our daily lives.

Secondly, the COBOL of today is not your father's COBOL. As a language, COBOL has continually evolved through both an active standards body and companies such as Micro Focus developing and extending the language. This means that while traditional COBOL systems retain their solid proven core business logic, they can now be extended and integrated with new technology.

The Power of COBOL draws on author Rui de Oliveira's long experience in COBOL training and, says Billman, is a powerful and comprehensive study of the COBOL language both the fundamentals and new concepts such as Object Orientated COBOL.

Professor A J Smith of the Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria describes The Power of COBOL as a book which is learner-centred and will allow the keen student to learn progressively as he applies the acquired knowledge. The book fits equally well in more structured environments where true professional computer programmers are developed.

THE AUTHOR: Rui de Oliveira spent more than 30 years in computer programming in industry, training and education. A former IBM branch manager, he transferred his passion into education and founded one of South Africa's best known training schools, the Luso Computer Institute. Latterly engaged in courseware development he is currently completing other student friendly books on C, C++ & C++.NET, C# and VB.NET.

The Power of COBOL is now available on amazon.com. Click on order to purchase a copy.