51 real, findable books across 8 languages, each one checked against a real bookseller, publisher, or library listing before it went on this page — no invented titles. Every book has a one-line note on who it’s actually for, not jacket copy.
Beginning COBOL for Programmers
Michael Coughlan
The best on-ramp for someone who already knows how to program in another language and just needs COBOL's syntax and record-oriented thinking explained without condescension; it moves fast because it assumes real programming background.
Murach's Mainframe COBOL
Mike Murach, Anne Prince, and Raul Menendez
This is the book to reach for once syntax isn't the problem anymore and the actual mainframe environment is: VSAM, DB2, CICS, and JCL, the layer where most real production COBOL problems actually live.
Murach's OS/390 and z/OS JCL
Doug Lowe and Raul Menendez
COBOL programs don't run themselves on a mainframe; JCL is what invokes them, and this is the reference most working mainframe programmers actually learned it from, not just a syntax dump.
Murach's CICS for the COBOL Programmer
Doug Lowe and Raul Menendez
For anyone whose COBOL work is online transaction processing rather than batch, CICS is a genuinely different mental model, and this book treats it as one instead of an afterthought bolted onto a batch-programming book.
DB2 for the COBOL Programmer, Part 1
Curtis Garvin and Steve Eckols
Embedded SQL inside a COBOL program has its own gotchas around cursors, host variables, and error handling that a general SQL book won't cover; this is written specifically for that combination.
VSAM Access Method Services
James Martin
Dated, but VSAM's file-organization model hasn't fundamentally changed since; this is worth tracking down specifically when a file-status or dataset-organization error, not COBOL syntax, is the actual problem in front of you.
Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age
Kurt W. Beyer
Not a how-to, but genuinely useful context for understanding why COBOL looks the way it does; Hopper's FLOW-MATIC work directly shaped the English-like syntax COBOL's committee later adopted, and this book explains that lineage properly instead of reducing it to a one-line credit.
Programming in ILE RPG, Fifth Edition
Bryan Meyers and Jim Buck
The standard classroom text for learning RPG IV/ILE RPG from scratch, reorganized in this edition with expanded free-format and SQL coverage; it also doubles as prep material for the COMMON Certified Associate RPG Developer exam. Best starting point for someone new to the language rather than a working RPG shop's day-to-day reference.
The Modern RPG IV Language
Robert Cozzi
A long-running, near-700-page reference covering RPG IV from its foundational syntax through advanced opcodes and built-in functions. Written by a widely cited RPG expert and used as a desk reference by working RPG programmers, not just a teaching text.
Free-Format RPG IV: The Express Guide to Learning Free Format
Jim Martin
Written by a 26-year IBM veteran of the RPG development team, this is a focused, fast on-ramp specifically for a fixed-format RPG programmer who needs to get productive in free-format syntax without relearning the whole language.
Functions in Free-Format RPG IV
Jim Martin
Goes past basic free-format syntax into built-in functions, C-language functions, subprocedures, prototyping, and ILE concepts like binding and service programs — useful for a programmer past the fixed-versus-free debate and ready to write modular, ILE-style RPG.
Who Knew You Could Do That with RPG IV? A Sorcerer's Guide to System Access and More
Rich Diedrich, Jim Diephuis, Susan Gantner, Jeff Minette, Jon Paris, Kody Robinson, Tim Rowe, and Paul Tuohy (IBM Redbooks)
A free, official IBM Redbook aimed at RPG programmers whose skills stalled at an older version of the language; it covers embedded SQL in free-format and other modern techniques directly from IBM's own IBM i development and Redbooks teams.
Control Language Programming for IBM i
Jim Buck, Bryan Meyers, and Dan Riehl
RPG doesn't run in isolation on IBM i; CL is the job-control language wrapped around it. This is the standard companion text for that side of the platform, covering structured CL programming, file processing, and ILE integration with hands-on exercises.
21st Century RPG: /Free, ILE, and MVC
David Shirey
Aimed squarely at the programmer who learned RPG years ago and never kept up with the platform's evolution; it walks through free-format, ILE program/service-program structure, and applying MVC principles to modernize application design and web programming.
PL/I Structured Programming
Joan K. Hughes
First published in 1973 and reissued through a third edition in the early 1990s, this is the classic teaching text that introduced a generation of mainframe programmers to PL/I's structured-programming features from someone writing while those features were still new.
Das neue PL/I (published in English coverage as "The New PL/I")
Eberhard Sturm
The most current PL/I-specific reference still in active print, covering PC, workstation, and mainframe PL/I in one volume; the best starting point for anyone who needs the language as it actually compiles today rather than as it was documented decades ago.
Introduction to PL/I Programming and PL/C
Marilyn Bohl and Arline Walter
A 1973 introductory textbook built around PL/C, Cornell's teaching dialect of PL/I; useful for readers who want to see how the language was actually taught to beginners rather than how it was marketed to IBM's enterprise customers.
An Introduction to Programming: A Structured Approach Using PL/I and PL/C
Richard W. Conway and David Gries
Co-written by David Gries, later well known for The Science of Programming, this is worth reading for how it treats PL/I as a vehicle for teaching structured programming discipline generally, not PL/I trivia specifically.
PL/I Programming: A Structured, Disciplined Approach
Edward L. Lamie
A 1982 college text aimed squarely at readers coming from other structured languages, useful as a second opinion alongside Hughes when a single explanation of ON-condition handling or storage classes doesn't click.
Enterprise PL/I for z/OS Version 5 Release 3 Programming Guide (IBM GI13-4536-02)
IBM Corporation
The canonical vendor documentation for the compiler almost every production PL/I shop is actually running against; not a book you read cover to cover, but the reference to open when a textbook example and the real compiler's behavior disagree.
Mainframe Assembler Programming
Bill Qualls
One of the longest-standing dedicated introductions to the subject. A solid choice for someone starting from zero who wants a single linear text rather than piecing fundamentals together from IBM manuals.
The Big Blue Assembler Book
David E. Woolbright
Widely recommended in mainframe forums specifically for covering fundamentals in real depth rather than skimming them, which makes it a good second book once basic syntax is no longer the obstacle.
Advanced Assembler Language and MVS Interfaces for IBM Systems and Application Programmers
Carmine A. Cannatello
Aimed past the basics, at systems-programmer-level interfaces into MVS itself. The natural next step once register and storage fundamentals are already solid and you want to write code that talks to the operating system directly.
IBM Z Assembler Programming
Ricardo Nuqui
A more recent treatment aimed at current IBM Z and z/OS releases, useful if you want material written against today's platform rather than a text that predates decades of z/Architecture changes.
Mainframe Assembler Programming: A Comprehensive Guide
Ricardo Nuqui
A broader companion to Nuqui's IBM Z-focused title, structured as a fuller course through the language rather than a quick reference. Worth comparing directly against Qualls' book as a second modern option.
PowerBuilder 9: Internet and Distributed Application Development
John D. Olson and William Green
Written by two of the most visible figures in the old TeamSybase community, this is the book to reach for on distributed and internet-facing PowerBuilder architecture from the era when PowerBuilder was actively competing for web application work, not just maintaining it.
PowerBuilder 7.0 Unleashed
Simon Herbert, Ken Reppart, Simon Gallagher, and Joe Quick
Part of the long-running Sams Unleashed series that tracked PowerBuilder release-by-release through the 1990s; useful for anyone maintaining an application whose oldest layers were written against PowerBuilder 6 or 7 conventions.
Using PowerBuilder 6, Special Edition
Bill Heys and Charles A. Wood
A step-by-step Que Special Edition aimed partly at readers working toward the old Certified PowerBuilder Developer credential — a good pick if you want a structured, tutorial-style read rather than a reference to dip into.
PowerBuilder Foundation Class Library Professional Reference
William Green, Boris Gasin, Andy Tauber, and Howard Block
If the application you've inherited is built on PFC, the PowerBuilder Foundation Class framework that shows up constantly in enterprise-era codebases, this is the reference written specifically to explain its extension layers and deployment model rather than PowerBuilder in general.
PowerBuilder 5.0: Secrets of the PowerBuilder Masters
Michael MacDonald
An older, more informal grab-bag of practitioner techniques rather than a systematic manual, useful for the specific tricks and workarounds that only show up when people who actually shipped PowerBuilder 5 applications write down what they learned.
PowerBuilder 5: Object-Oriented Design and Development
William Green and Millard Brown
Worth reading specifically for the object-oriented design discipline it pushes, since a lot of the maintenance difficulty in old PowerBuilder applications traces back to teams skipping exactly the design practices this book was arguing for at the time.
Coding in Delphi
Nick Hodges
A focused book on writing clean, testable, modern Delphi, covering generics, interfaces, anonymous methods, RTTI, and dependency injection rather than IDE mechanics. Best for developers who already know basic Delphi syntax and want to write it the way the language's newer features actually intend.
More Coding in Delphi
Nick Hodges
The direct follow-up, moving into SOLID principles, design patterns like Factory and Observer, multi-threading, and component writing. Worth reading right after the first book once the fundamentals are solid and the goal shifts to structuring a larger codebase well.
Object Pascal Handbook: Delphi 10.4 Sydney Edition
Marco Cantù
An 18-chapter, 534-page language reference from the author who has been writing the standard Delphi documentation since the Mastering Delphi series in the 1990s. The natural pick for a working reference to keep open, not a cover-to-cover tutorial.
Delphi GUI Programming with FireMonkey
Andrea Magni
Over 500 pages and roughly 80 demo projects dedicated specifically to FireMonkey, the cross-platform framework, rather than treating it as an afterthought to VCL coverage. The right choice for anyone whose actual job is targeting macOS, iOS, or Android from Delphi, not just Windows.
Delphi Cookbook, 3rd Edition
Daniele Teti and Daniele Spinetti
A recipe-format book aimed at IoT integration, cross-platform work, mobile, and server-side Delphi, useful for grabbing a working solution to a specific problem rather than reading in order. Teti is also the author of DelphiMVCFramework, so the server-side material comes from direct, current practice.
Modern Object Pascal Introduction for Programmers
Michalis Kamburelis
A free, actively maintained online book covering the language as it exists now, classes, generics, interfaces, units, across both Delphi and Free Pascal. Good for a programmer coming from another language who wants to see how far Object Pascal has moved past its Turbo Pascal reputation, at no cost.
Borland Delphi 6 Developer's Guide
Steve Teixeira and Xavier Pacheco
An older, out-of-print classic, but still worth tracking down secondhand for its unusually thorough treatment of the VCL and the Windows API layer underneath it. Useful specifically for developers maintaining an older Delphi codebase who need to understand why it was built the way it was, not for learning current-day Delphi from scratch.
ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit (series)
Ben Forta, with Raymond Camden, Charlie Arehart, and others
The best-selling, longest-running ColdFusion book series, revised edition after edition to track each new CF release; more working ColdFusion developers learned the language from a Forta edition than from any other single source.
Programming ColdFusion
Rob Brooks-Bilson
An O'Reilly-style, denser alternative to the Forta series, aimed at developers who already know how to program and want CFML's specifics explained efficiently rather than taught from the ground up.
Object-Oriented Programming in ColdFusion
Matt Gifford
Useful specifically because CFML's tag-based reputation undersells how far its OOP support goes; this is the book for a developer who only knows CFML as a templating language and needs to see it as a real object-oriented one.
The Definitive Guide to the ColdBox Platform
Luis F. Majano
ColdBox is the CFML ecosystem's dominant MVC framework, maintained by Ortus Solutions; this is the primary reference for a shop that has outgrown ad hoc CFML scripts and wants a real application architecture.
Mastering ColdFusion MX
Arman Danesh, with Raymond Camden, Selene Bainum, and Guy Rish
An older title, but a genuinely thorough one for understanding CFML's core mechanics as they were codified in the MX era, much of which is still directly recognizable in current CFML.
Hack Proofing ColdFusion
Steve Casco, Rob Rusher, Greg Meyer, Sarge, David Vaccaro, David An
A security-specific ColdFusion book, rare even when it was published in 2002; the individual code samples have aged, but the underlying discipline it teaches, treat every ColdFusion install as an internet-facing attack surface, has only gotten more relevant.
ColdFusion Cookbook
Rob Brooks-Bilson, Jeremy Petersen, Peter Farland
A problem-first, recipe-format companion to the more linear books on this list; good for a working developer who already knows CFML basics and wants a fast answer to a specific task rather than another full walkthrough of the language.
Modern Fortran Explained: Incorporating Fortran 2018
Michael Metcalf, John Reid, Malcolm Cohen
The standard reference to the language itself, written by people who sat on the ISO committee that defines it. It's the book to reach for when you need to know exactly what the standard says, not just how a particular compiler behaves.
Fortran for Scientists and Engineers
Stephen J. Chapman
A teaching text built for people learning Fortran as a working tool for engineering and physical-science problems rather than as a language in the abstract, with worked numerical examples throughout rather than toy syntax demos.
Guide to Fortran 2008 Programming
Walter S. Brainerd
Covers the 2008 standard that introduced DO CONCURRENT and coarrays, the two features most responsible for Fortran's current parallel and GPU story, from an author who also co-authored earlier Fortran 90 standard guides.
Modern Fortran in Practice
Arjen Markus
Less about syntax and more about idiom: how to structure real Fortran programs using modules, derived types, and modern language features instead of carrying forward FORTRAN 77 habits into a modern codebase.
Numerical Recipes in Fortran 90: The Art of Parallel Scientific Computing
William H. Press, Saul A. Teukolsky, William T. Vetterling, Brian P. Flannery
The Fortran 90 edition of the Numerical Recipes series, still worth having for anyone implementing numerical algorithms from first principles, though readers should pair it with a modern-standards book since the code predates Fortran 2003 and later.
Scientific Software Design: The Object-Oriented Way
Damian Rouson, Jim Xia, Xiaofeng Xu
Makes the case, with real scientific-computing examples, that Fortran's object-oriented features (added in the 2003 standard) aren't a bolted-on afterthought but a genuinely useful tool for structuring large simulation codebases.