Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 19:59:54 -0500 (CDT)
From: MARK JACOBSON <Mark.Jacobson@uni.edu>
Subject: Cheapest COBOL compiler for PCs...

Hi COBOL students,

    Several students have asked about COBOL compilers for their IBM
compatible computers.  The cheapest that I have been able to find is 
available on a CD-ROM that comes with a book about COBOL.  Actually,
one of the cheapest ways to buy C or C++ or Pascal or whatever language
compilers, is to buy a trade book, cause lots of them come with the
compiler for the language, to make the book more competitive.

   The book COBOL FOR DUMMIES by Arthur Griffin comes with 3 COBOL compilers.

        1.  AcuCOBOL system (this is the very same compiler we are using
                             on chaos and in the Wright 112 lab on NT)
        2.  Fujitsu COBOL

        3.  NetExpress COBOL from Micro Focus

   The book costs $30, which is cheaper than any of the student priced 
compilers I have seen anywhere.  The one drawback of the book is that the
license on acuCOBOL compiler expired almost a year ago, so after you 
install it, when you want to use it, you need to set the date on your
computer to September of 1998 or earlier.  It appears they thought the
COBOL FOR DUMMIES book would have a new edition by September of 1998.
It could also be that later printings of the same edition have an updated
CD-ROM on them.

   We will play around with the acuCOBOL on Windows NT (from the DOS prompt
and from Windows NT) in the hands-on class on Monday, so you can have the
experience and option of doing the assignments on a stand-alone PC with
acuCOBOL or in a PC environment over a network.  

   The very BIG advantage of using chaos.cns.uni.edu is that you can work 
on your COBOL programs in the evening and on weekends with your modem
dialed into chaos from home or connected from the library and some of the
other UNI SCC computer labs, which are open many more hours 
than the Wright 112 lab is in the summer.

   You can write the COBOL program at home on a PC without a compiler
using your favorite word processor or the Accessory Notepad or the DOS prompt
EDIT editor and then upload it over the modem or telnet connection to the
chaos computer, so you DO NOT have to do all of your work on chaos and
can even do LOTS OF WORK on a PC at home, even if you do not have a modem
or internet connection.  Just bring a diskette to the library or Wright 112
and transfer the file up to chaos using ftp in the library or over to the 
Z: drive using Windows NT/95 techniques when you get there.

   By the end of the summer, you should know a quite a few new things besides
just the COBOL and file processing/database related concepts that are part
of the COBOL language.  We will try to have at least one hands-on class in
Wright 112 lab per week, continuing next Monday with the 2nd one.

   Mark