myCobol.ovh

Cobol is English. Naming things in Cobol, if English is your mother tongue, could be tricky since there are so much reserved words defined.
Apply some tricks to avoid a clash with reserved words.

The letter Q is very rare in common sense language. So is the letter X. These can be used prudently.

CoCoS suggests to overcome a clash with reserved words:

-> prepend a paragraph name with a four-digit sequence number,
-> put a Q (a q that is) in front of any name that could possibly be a reserved word,
-> append one or more X's (x's that is) to any name that could possibly be a reserved word.

CoCos also suggests for paragraph names:

-> use a general format of 9999-myparagraph, where 9999 runs from 0000 to 9999,
-> have the paragraph names sorted by the prefix in your Cobol Text,
-> suggested meaning of the prefix:
-->0100 - 0200 initializing
-->0900 closing, shut down
-->1000 - 1999 general processing, first level
-->2000 - 2999 specific processing, second level

CoCoS also suggests that, if you use the X technique that

->try to name variables with a fixed length, f.i. stick to 8 characters
append as many X's to reach that fixed length

CocoS also suggests to not use the Q and X together.