Re: [open-cobol-list] More on "Date-Modified"

[John R. Culleton]

On Wednesday 12 October 2005 01:10 am, Bill Klein wrote:
> I just thought I would share with the OpenCobol list another output listing
> with DATE-MODIFIED in the A-margin.  The W-level message (for the line
> above) would seem to me to CONFIRM that (at least as far as what is
> supported and gets no warning message), that just as:
>
>    http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/BOOKS/IGY3LR30/3.1
>
> shows, current IBM compilers do NOT support a Date-Modified paragraph. (No
> other warning messages were issued)
>
There is of course a safe course to be followed. Use paragraph
names ad libitum in the IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. Comment out
those that cause error messages. Or, if on a mainframe where
recompiles are not convenient, comment out all of them except
PROGRAM-ID. That will always work. 

The Powers That Be seem intent on the gradual elimination of the
IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. At some point even the division header
will be outlawed. But competent programmers will continue to use
it just as GMH described it, to give the who what when where and
why of the program. 

With the standard paragraph names being knocked off, one by one,
starting with REMARKS, why are we debating the existence of a 
non-standard one?

-- 
John Culleton