ChiCOBOL

Most COBOL programs today are run in IBM mainframe shops. Unfortunately, new COBOL users may have difficulty gaining access to an IBM mainframe on which to acquire experience with IBM COBOL, JCL, creating and editing datasets, etc.

The Hercules mainframe emulator offers one route to gaining a certain degree of proficiency with IBM mainframe COBOL. Admittedly the legally available operating systems, COBOL compiler, and JCL version for this purpose are obsolete. However, due to backward compatibility, they’re not as irrelevant as you might think.

Jay Moseley is among the Herculeans who’ve provided a significant amount of documentation for new users. He identifies the available compiler as “IBM OS American National Standard COBOL – version designation: V2 LVL78 01 MAY 72″.

Kevin Leonard of the Hercules-390 forum identified the corresponding IBM COBOL language reference manual as GC28-6396-4. Through interlibrary loan, I’ve just received 3 copies of this manual.

We might as well capitalize on the error which led the University of Toledo to ship 3 copies of the same book. If you’re in the Chicago area, and would like to have a look at one of the spare copies of the manual, drop me a line at chicobol@comcast.net.