Pumpkin - I bet, its not a herculean task to compile-link and run COBOL Modules on the Mainframes. On the contrary, you might have to spend a significant amount of time, in setting up an IDE(Like Eclipse or MS Visual Studio) with the appropriate plugins.
Here's a sample Compile-Link Job, that you could use to get started. You just need to plug-in the values of the parameters, like what's your Program Name, what's the Source Code Library, what's you Load-Library and so on. Should be good enough to get your hands wet.
//SYSADMC JOB A123,'BIN-7 QUASAR',CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=Y,NOTIFY=&SYSUID
//*=================================================================
//* zOS Enterprise COBOL Compile-Link-Edit Job |
//* Global Parameters |
//* |
//* Parameter Value Description |
//* --------- --------------------- -------------- |
// SET PROGRAM='PROG10' PROGRAM NAME |
// SET SRCLIB='SYSADM.DEMO.SRCLIB' SOURCE LIBRARY |
// SET COPYLIB='SYSADM.DEMO.COPYLIB' COPY LIBRARY |
// SET LOADLIB='SYSADM.DEMO.LOADLIB' LOAD LIBRARY |
// SET COBPRFX='IGY310' COBOL LIBRARY |
//*=================================================================
//COMPILE EXEC PGM=IGYCRCTL,REGION=2048K,
// PARM='LIB,SSRANGE,XREF,LIST,MAP,OFFSET,FLAG(W,W)'
//STEPLIB DD DSN=&COBPRFX..SIGYCOMP,DISP=SHR
//SYSLIB DD DSN=©LIB,DISP=SHR
//SYSIN DD DSN=&SRCLIB(&PROGRAM),DISP=SHR
//SYSLIN DD DSNAME=&&LOADSET,UNIT=SYSDA,
// DISP=(MOD,PASS),SPACE=(TRK,(3,3)),
// DCB=(BLKSIZE=3200)
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSUT1 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,1))
//SYSUT2 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,1))
//SYSUT3 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,1))
//SYSUT4 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,1))
//SYSUT5 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,1))
//SYSUT6 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,1))
//SYSUT7 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(1,1))
//LKED EXEC PGM=HEWL,REGION=1024K
//SYSLIB DD DSN=CEE.SCEELKED,DISP=SHR
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSLIN DD DSN=&&LOADSET,DISP=(OLD,DELETE)
//SYSLMOD DD DSN=&LOADLIB(&PROGRAM),DISP=SHR
//SYSUT1 DD UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(TRK,(10,10))
Thank you very much.