C for COBOL Programmers: A Business Approach

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 544 pages
• Published by: Addison-Wesley Professional January 12, 1996
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0805316604
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0805316605
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.9 pounds

Book Info
Written by an experienced business data systems designer, this new tutorial provides an ideal introduction to C for the C programmer who wants to become proficient in the powerful C language. Paper. DLC: C (Computer program language)

From the Inside Flap


This book was born of rage.

When I first tried to learn the C language in 1985, I could not find a book that made sense to me. I had been designing business systems and programming COBOL for more than 15 years. All the books on C that I found were "self-referential." That is to say, the authors had been writing C for so long that they had forgotten what it was like not to know it. I gave up after a few months. I was enraged that nobody had written a readable and useful book.

One day in 1988 my client, Rob Gillette, dropped twenty C programs on my desk and said, "Here, Jim, learn C and finish this subsystem." I went back to the bookstore and found the books to be a little better than three years before, but still not very good. I learned C, but it was a painful experience.

In 1991 I began working on business systems being developed in C. It was at this time I realized that I could write the book I had been looking for: C for COBOL Programmers.

C is just another language. Much of it works like COBOL, but with symbols instead of words. Parts of C have assumptions different from COBOL, and parts have rules different from COBOL. The purpose of this book is to use your knowledge of COBOL to teach you C. The book shows you where C works the same way as COBOL and shows you where it's different. It also focuses on the parts of C used most often in business systems.

C has some very nice features and some that are a real pain in the neck, just like COBOL.

Come on, jump in! The water's not that cold!

0805316604P04192001

Reader Reviews
I found most C training books frustrating because I had too many questions, questions about file structure, storage, and definitions. This book explained the answers in a language I could understand, Cobol. I would not use this book as the sole teacher of the C language but it sure relieved many of the frustrations I had in the beginning. Gearing's approach was almost the complete opposite of every other C book and I think I needed both approaches to obtain the desired result, learning C.