COBOL Programming Sandpit?

jodrisco · New User Joined: 10 Apr 2017 Posts: 3 Location: UK

Hello All.
I was a COBOL programmer in the 80s and 90s, first on ICL VME then IBM MVS.
I'd like to refresh my COBOL and JCL skills and rejoin the COBOL market.
Does anyone know of any COBOL programming Sandpit environments that exist that people like myself can access?
Many thanks in advance.

Robert Sample · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 6:33 am

GnuCOBOL (formerly OpenCOBOL) is a free COBOL compiler that runs on various platforms. It supports z/OS COBOL syntax with a compile switch, and implements a good amount of the COBOL 2014 standard. I've used it very successfully to compile Enterprise COBOL code.

It can be downloaded from SourceForge.

jodrisco · New User Joined: 10 Apr 2017 Posts: 3 Location: UK

Thanks for your reply, unfortunately I've tried a number of times to install Cygwin and GnuCOBOL on my Windows 10 Lenovo without success.

prino · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:14 pm

jodrisco · New User Joined: 10 Apr 2017 Posts: 3 Location: UK

Thanks for replying, could you elaborate further as I don't quite understand your comment.
Many thanks.

Robert Sample · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 7:12 pm

Google is your friend. Googling free cobol compiler returns about 96,900 hits and includes at least one web page that provides links to a number of free COBOL compilers, along with a number of direct links to free compilers.

Have you tried MinGW on your Windows system to allow GnuCOBOL to install?

Rohit Umarjikar · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 10:03 pm

Welcome!
Practice here.