COBOL . . . Still standing tall. Just like the evergreen, the COBOL programming language has remained vibrant and full of life year after year. Today, COBOL is running a large number of the world's business data applications, and it's likely to remain a viable language in the years ahead. Now in its 11th Edition, Nancy Stern, Robert Stern, and James Ley's COBOL for the 21st Century continues to show how to design COBOL programs that are easy to read, debug, modify, and maintain. You'll learn to write interactive programs as well as batch programs with sophisticated file processing techniques, and become familiar with valuable information processing and systems concepts. Features * Updated to reflect COBOL 2008, where appropriate. * A chapter on the Report Writer Module. * More end-of-chapter questions. * A running case study builds on what you have learned in each chapter. * Integrated coverage of interactive programming. * Covers information processing and systems concepts that will help you interact with users and systems analysts when designing programs. * Introduces programming tools such as pseudocode and hierarchy charts that make program logic more structured, modular, and top-down. * Presents useful techniques for maintaining and modifying older "legacy" programs. * Effective learning tools, including chapter outlines and objectives, debugging tips and exercises, critical-thinking questions, and programming assignments. * Links to COBOL Internet resources. * Companion Website (www.wiley.com/college/stern), featuring a syntax reference guide, data sets for all programming assignments, and all programs illustrated in the book.

Dr. Nancy Stern received a B.A. in mathematics from Barnard College and an M.S. in mathematics and computer science from New York University. She earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in the history of science and technology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her Ph.D. thesis on the development of Eckert-Mauchly computers has been published by the Digital Equipment Corporation. Her research on the history of electronic digital computers has been supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Stern has co-authored numerous textbooks in the computing field, including Computing in the Information Age, Structured COBOL Programming, Assembler Language Programming, Structured Flowcharting, System Analysis, Structured RPG III Programming, Turbo Basic, Microsoft Basic and The Impact of Computers on Society. She has also written many articles for ACM Computing Surveys, Datamation, Computerworld, the Annals of the History of Computing, The IEEE Spectrum, Technology and Culture and The Social Studies of Science, as well as a book on the history of computing called From ENIAC to UNIVAC. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Korean and Chinese.