cobol-programming-course VS Awesome-Mainframes

Link: https://github.com/openmainframeproject/cobol-programming-course

IBM has some Open mainframe Training course

https://github.com/openmainframeproject/cobol-programming-co...

Also, mainframes are really good at high throughput transactional jobs. That's why you see them in banks, transportation, insurance, etc. Big Tech™ doesn't see it as "cool" and are too focused on the Next Big Thing™, so there's not a lot of attention there. Sometimes, boring just gets the job done.

A great learning resource for COBOL is the Open Mainframe Project's COBOL Programming Course. The content is self-paced with labs and the best part is you get to do the labs on a real Mainframe.

Check it out: https://github.com/openmainframeproject/cobol-programming-co...

It's certainly not as straighforward as learning a more popular language and environment, but there are online resources if you look for them. A quick search yielded https://github.com/openmainframeproject/cobol-programming-co...

There appears to be an active community around it, and I'm sure getting help in an apprenticeship sort of way is possible. Again, we're talking about a niche language, so you can't expect the same level of accessibility as NodeJS or Go.

As for finding jobs, they're probably few and far between, but appear to be well paid from what I've heard. Places that need COBOL programmers will announce it, opportunities will likely come up from other contacts in the community, and cold contacting companies you know are using it is always an option.

There's a free course hosted by Open Mainframe Project here: https://github.com/openmainframeproject/cobol-programming-course

If you just want the subjective experience, I recommend the Computer History Museum in California, when/if that's possible for you. About the only place where you can still load up a real deck of cards and hit RUN.

Otherwise, yes you can simulate it. There are plenty of operating systems and software from the late 50s/60s/70s that has survived. Pretty much the whole stack for a cutting edge IBM mainframe from 1974 is available. But you'll have to pick which OS and era, and then set it up, install and configure it yourself to some degree. I don't think anyone keeps an MVS system running online for public access (but I could be wrong!)

Expect many hours of reading old manuals. On the plus side, you do generally boot from a virtual punch card reader!

https://github.com/FuzzyMainframes/Awesome-Mainframes