If you are interested to learn about the Cobol Introduction
There are many free Mainframe mulators available for the Windows operating system, which can be used to write and learn simple COBOL programs. One such emulator is Hercules, which can be easily installed on Windows operating system by following some simple steps as given below:
- Once you have installed the package on your Windows system, it will create a folder like C:\Program Files\Hercules\R3.13.
- Now open your Windows command prompt and go to the C:\Program Files\Hercules\R3.13 directory or directly search for Hercules CMD Prompt.
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation2.png)
You can see the command prompt.
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation3.png)
COBOL IDE
You can also use COBOL IDEs to compile and execute your COBOL programs; it is simple and easy to install and configure.
OpenCobolIDE is a simple, easy to use, and a lightweight COBOL IDE based on the GnuCOBOL compiler. We can install it on GNU/Linux, Windows, and Mac OSX.
To download the OpenCobolIDE on your Windows.
And select Windows Installer.
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation4.png)
Now download and install it.
Creating your First Program
To create new files in your OpenCobolIDE, follow the following steps:
- Click on New file button
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation5.png)
- Now, give the name of the file and specify the directory.
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation6.png)
- Click on the OK button. It will open the window with the default Hello World program.
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation7.png)
To compile this program, click on the hammer icon button.
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation8.png)
When your program is successfully compiled, it will display the following result:
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation9.png)
And after a successful compilation, select the green play button.
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation10.png)
When you execute the program, the following output will generate:
![COBOL Installation](https://static.javatpoint.com/tutorial/cobol/images/cobol-installation11.png)