Hi Kevin, I guess, as an IBM employee, you're probably looking at IBM COBOL. I always had an affection for COBOL, though after the course by Roy Chitty at Pembridge Place, like Phil, all of my experience was in the ICL strain of the language. Do you need to learn the language from a historical perspective, or in order to write actual runnable programmes with it? If the latter, if you're not already familiar with it, I would strongly recommend you learn to write programmes in COBOL and design them using the Jackson structured programming methodology if you can. Best, Clive ________________________________ From: bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bcab-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kevin Russell Sent: 22 May 2008 12:13 To: bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bcab] COBOL training and reference material I guess the subject line says it all. I need to teach myself COBOL. I'm looking for any textbooks, tutorials and reference material, either online, on tape or in Braille. Does anybody have any good recommendations. Many thanks in advance for any suggestions. Cheers Kevin Kevin Russell CICS Test IBM UK Ltd MP 102 Hursley Park Winchester, Hampshire United Kingdom. SO21 2JN Tel: +44 1962 815531 (internal 245531) Internet: kevin_russell@xxxxxxxxxx ________________________________ Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU