myCobol.ovh

The Cobol language was intended as program text and followed a certain common text format. It contains DIVISION’s with SECTION’s. In text processing terms the entries could form a (virtual) Table Of Contents (TOC). Each SECTION was build from PARAGRAPH’s . The language format is furthermore based on SENTENCE’s (ending with a period) containing statements (separated by a optional comma).

In other words, a structure as familiar as a common text document. Doesn’t this fact invite to dive into the principles of text processing and common usances in that area? To my opinion it is at least worth the try.

Following topics should be explored:
Uppercase, lowercase, camelCase.

Create Building Blocks as a notary does.

Extend the TOC’s with paragraphs and high level statements.

Macro’s for fill-in-the-form.

Architecture is King.

Workflow is external. Always.

Business Process Modeling: perform, perform, perform.

Outsource what renders the program unreadable: call a routine or two.

Think modular but without structured approaches.