COBOL and Visual Basic on .NET: A Guide for the Reformed Mainframe Programmer

One The Mainframe Paradigm Shift.- 1 Your Future with COBOL.- 2 What Is .NET?.- 3 .NET Retraining Prerequisites, Part 1.- 4 .NET Retraining Prerequisites, Part 2.- Two .NET Programming Essentials.- 5 Inside the .NET Integrated Development Environment.- 6 The Nuts and Bolts of .NET Programming.- 7 The .NET Framework.- 8 The .NET Common Language Runtime.- 9 Creating and Using Objects.- Three Reading, Writing, and Describing Data.- 10 A New Perspective Toward Data.- 11 Database Programming with .NET.- 12 XML in a Managed Environment.- Four Interfacing and Interacting with the User.- 13 Windows Forms, Web Forms, and No Forms.- 14 Adding Value to Your Interface.- 15 Managing Cache and State for ASP .NET.- 16 Reporting and Information Delivery.- 17 Deploying Your .NET Application.- Five Advanced .NET Technologies.- 18 Configuration for .NET Applications.- 19 Using Enterprise Services (COM+).- 20 Developing for the Enterprise.- Six Appendixes.- Appendix A Debugging and Testing.- Debugging.- Testing.- Summary.- To Learn More.- Appendix B A Sharp Primer: C# and J#.- Introducing Visual C# .NET.- Introducing Visual J# .NET.- Summary.- To Learn More.- Appendix C Religion, Landmines, and Distractions.- Distractions: Been There, Done That.- Summary.- To Learn More.- Appendix D Fujitsu’s NetCOBOL for .NET.- Product Features.- Product Documentation.- Summary.- To Learn More.

From the reviews:
"This book explains what .Net is, then provides a comprehensive guide to retraining. The style is conversational and easy to read. … Presentation is well structured, with plenty of notes, tips and cautions on matters such as registry editing. There are cross references to related topics covered in other chapters, and a copious index and relevant references are provided at the end of each chapter, with useful downloads." (Philip Ballinger, Computer Bulletin, March, 2004)

strongChris L. Richardson/strong is a senior software engineer on a .NET web development project at a Fortune 500 company. Before making the transition to Windows and web programming, he held senior programmer/analyst positions on the mainframe platform. For the majority of his 20+ years in the information technology field, he has developed using COBOL, CICS, and DB2. Chris proudly reminds people of his mainframe background and jokingly refers to himself as a "reformed mainframe programmer." He divides his leisure time between entrepreneurial endeavors (such as his startup, California-based eClectic Software Solutions) and studying for his next Microsoft certification exam.

Written from the perspective of a former COBOL/CICS mainframe programmer Familiar mainframe terms/concepts are used to help introduce the .NET technologies COBOL .NET and Visual Basic .NET code samples are provided Author is a Senior Software Engineer on a .NET Web Development project at a Fortune 500 company Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras