The Ultimate Guide: Install COBOL for Free with VSCode in 2025 (Step-by-Step Tutorial)
TL; DR: Install WSL2, Debian, GnuCOBOL, and VSCode to create a modern COBOL development environment in under 10 minutes. Perfect for beginners, students, and professional developers. Why Learn COBOL in 2025? Quick facts that might surprise you: - COBOL handles $3 trillion in daily commerce - 95% of ATM swipes use COBOL - 220+ billion lines of COBOL still run in production - Only 0.4% of developers know COBOL (Stack Overflow 2024) What You'll Learn in This Guide ✅ How to install a free COBOL development environment ✅ Set up VSCode for COBOL programming ✅ Create, edit, and run your first COBOL program ✅ Use modern development tools with legacy languages Prerequisites - Windows 10 version 2004 and higher (Build 19041 and higher) or Windows 11 - 4GB RAM minimum (8GB recommended) - 64-bit processor with virtualization enabled Complete Installation Guide Step 1: Install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Time: 2 minutes 1. Open PowerShell as Administrator 2. Run: wsl --install --n...