Structured programming concepts in an introductory COBOL course
Jan L. Mize · 1976
This paper concerns an effort to implement structured programming concepts in an introductory COBOL programming course in order to improve student program design and techniques. Since COBOL's native habitat is a business environment with recurring processing cycles and evolving systems requirements, COBOL, perhaps more than other languages, exhibits a glaring need for orderly structure and rigid standards to provide for readability, maintainability and modifiability. It is difficult for a student in a one-quarter course to fully appreciate the significance of having these characteristics in his own program when they are reviewed months (or years) later or in programs acquired from someone else.