Learning Resources

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Countless online tutorials, videos, and training classes are available. Some of them are pretty good.

The primary audience for cobol-check are developers who fall into one of the following general categories:

• experienced in object-oriented and/or functional languages on one or more operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Unix, Linux, or Apple OSX, but new to z/OS and/or Cobol.
• experienced in mainframe programming, but new to Cobol.
• experienced in mainframe programming in Cobol, but new to practices such as fine-grained unit testing and test-driven development.

Here we suggest a few self-guided learning resources for Cobol, IBM z/OS. and unit testing. We have tried to find resources that provide useful, up-to-date information in a clear way and with a practical focus, with a preference for those that do not treat the learner as a complete beginner at software development.

We indicate the following about each learning resource:

• Format: Video, text, etc.
• Level: Assumed previous knowledge.
• Interaction: No interaction, interactive video (e.g., embedded quizzes), instructor-led
• Price: Free or for a price
• Depth: Overview, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert
• Hands-on: Yes, no
• Time Investment: Hours

The absence of a resource from our list could mean that we are unaware of it, or it could mean we have checked it out and decided it does not meet the needs of our target audience. We are not going to get into any fights by mentioning the latter case explicitly.

Should you discover a useful learning resource relevant to these topic areas, please share it with us.

• IBM z/OS Learning Resources
• COBOL and CICS Learning Resources
• Unit Testing and TDD Learning Resources