Learning program organization through COBOL

Arguably, many computer languages have more panache and less verbosity than COBOL; but none has greater potential to inculcate the habits and techniques of advance planning for such things as structure, the byte-length of variables representing the results of computations, table/array size, fields t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:SIGCSE bulletin 2004-06, Vol.36 (2), p.77-81
Main Author: Friedman, William H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Arguably, many computer languages have more panache and less verbosity than COBOL; but none has greater potential to inculcate the habits and techniques of advance planning for such things as structure, the byte-length of variables representing the results of computations, table/array size, fields that will be needed, and the like. To illuminate a program's logic one can add some judiciously chosen, even un-required, yet available reserved words. I have found that the COBOL language aids and encourages comprehension of logical structure to a greater degree than with other languages. Moreover, in COBOL, meaningful, if lengthy, names are actually desirable and serve to clarify the work that takes place in the various procedures. Finally, because the structure of a COBOL program is so determinate, it is possible to teach a series of steps leading up to the end product, which both foreshadow and greatly organize the process of coding. This habit of organization is easily transferable to other contexts.
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1024338.1024377