COBOL and Visual Basic on .NET: A Guide for the Reformed Mainframe Programmer
Mr. Richardson
tells
the reader in this book, "The world has changed. The .NET Framework and VS .NET is part of that change . . . and so are you." We in the application development community must deal with ever-changing technologies. We're constantly faced with new challenges to keep our programming skills current. These challenges confront us whether we're integrating legacy systems with modern (integrated Web) technologies or whether we're developing
brand-new
applications on PCs and/or mainframes incorporating Web services. Can we continue to keep our legacy systems running our
enterprises
in the midst of these emerging technologies? Or must we abandon those systems and start from scratch to take advantage of these new technologies? Can we "have our cake and eat it too"?
Yes, we can develop modern applications using COBOL, taking advantage of its
superior
maintainability while incorporating Web-based services into these systems as described in this book. COBOL is
alive
and well in the twenty-first century and its future is bright. A
professor
friend of mine from Purdue University, when discussing COBOL's future, likes to tell his students, "You better wear your sunglasses." There's much life still left in our legacy systems due to the myriad of integration tools available to us. And thanks to
COBOL and Visual Basic on .NET: A Guide for the Reformed Mainframe Programmer,
we can understand this new technology from the mainframe programmer's perspective and learn to apply it in our real lives.
Jerome Garfunkel
Woodstock, New York
February, o2003
About the Author
Chris Richardson
has over 20
years
experience in the information technology field. Over half of his career has been on the mainframe platform developing using COBOL, CICS, and DB2. Chris says that his mainframe background has
served
as a sound foundation for his Windows, Web, and .NET programming transition ”a transition that has included becoming proficient in Visual Basic. Chris likes to point out that he has had the
pleasure
of being a senior programmer analyst, a lead developer, a systems architect, and a senior software engineer. With a smile, he explains that under each job title, the primary assigned and assumed duty has remained constant: to develop and optimize business solutions using technology as needed. Currently, he is a programming supervisor at a Fortune 500 company, offering his services to a team of Windows, Web, and .NET developers. He proudly reminds people of his mainframe background and jokingly refers to himself as a "reformed mainframe programmer."
Chris divides his leisure time between entrepreneurial endeavors (such as his recent start-up, California-based eClectic Software Solutions,
http://eclecticsoftwaresolutions.com
) and
studying
for his
next
Microsoft certification exam.
About the Technical Reviewer
Hung Tran
is a senior software engineer
specializing
in the design and development of financial service applications. He has an
extensive
technical background developing COM objects, client-server business applications, and Web applications. His multiprogramming language skill set includes C++, Java, Visual Basic, JavaScript, HTML, XML, and REXX, just to
name
a few. Upon the arrival of Visual Studio .NET Beta 1, Hung was participating in the .NET Early Adopter Program. Since then, Visual Studio .NET has become his main software development tool.
Living in Southern California with his wife and two children, Hung spends most of his spare time as a columnist, writing computer technical articles for
Phu Nu Gia Dinh Nguoi Viet,
an Orange County weekly magazine proudly serving the Vietnamese community; running his cofounded
nonprofit
organization, HopeToday.org; and playing computer
games
with his son.