[open-cobol-list] Fwd: Re: Identification Division still needed!

[J Martin Rushton]

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Absolutely agree about internal documentation.  The
only thing I would disagree with is that ALL languages
need internal documentation, whether it be PL/1, FORTAN
BLISS, VAX-macro, BASH (etc), Python or even SQL.  You'd
have got a flea in the ear from my lecturers way back in
the '70s (when disk storage was expensive) if you didn't
document internally and adequately.


On 06/02/15 15:10, John Culleton wrote:
> START RANT.
> 
> One of the biggest mistakes made by CODASYL and its successors is 
> the gradual annihilation of the Identification Division. In 2015
> as in 1959 programmers love to program and hate to document. The 
> standard paragraphs in the ID regularize and encourage internal 
> documentation. The most useful paragraph was 'REMARKS' which was 
> the first to go. I always judged a programs quality starting with 
> the Remarks paragraph. Today, lacking an official paragraph wise 
> programmers create what amounts to a Remarks paragraph and 
> highlight it by surrounding it on fours sides with asterisks. 
> Frankly that is a lot more work then just including the standard 
> paragraph names in the personal template.
> 
> The superb manual by Gary Cutler discourages their use, even if 
> they are included in GNU Cobol for compatibility with older 
> programs.
> 
> I would instead encourage their use. I use each paragraph for what 
> it name says. I use the Security paragraph for my copyright 
> statement.
> 
> The mavens who create the Cobol standard made and keep making a 
> serious mistake. We don't need to follow their folly. GMH was
> right and she is still right. External documentation in a ring
> binder gets lost when management changes or the office moves.
> Internal documentation is there forever. This is one of the things
> that make Cobol self-documenting and hence raises it above all
> other programming languages.
> 
> If a program is moved to a less englightened Cobol environment it 
> is little work to add some asterisks. they can even be added in 
> advance.
> 
> END RANT.
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