Re: [open-cobol-list] Which formatting convention to use?

[David Essex]

Duke Normandin wrote:

> Should a COBOL noob like me be learning the language using the
> traditional (strict) formatting conventions in order to learn COBOL
> correctly, or is using the "free" source format OK in this
> day-and-age?
> ...

You can use what format you prefer.
The default is fixed format.

For a complete list of OC options type 'cobc -h'.

Besides the REPORT and COMMUNICATION sections, which are not
implemented, OC conforms to the COBOL 85, and some of the COBOL 2002
standard.

An on-line COBOL tutorial can be found here [1].
And the OC FAQ can be found here [2].

Hope this helps.

1) COBOL programming - tutorials, lectures, exercises, examples
http://www.csis.ul.ie/COBOL/

2) OpenCOBOL FAQ
http://opencobol.add1tocobol.com/