A note on H.E. Tompkins's minimum-period COBOL style
Roger R. Baldwin · ACM SIGPLAN Notices · 1987
An unconventional, "minimum-period" COBOL coding style is described, illustrated and recommended.A simple formula is proposed that calculates the correct number of periods in a SECTIONiess PROCEDURE DIVISION written in this style.COBOL practitioners know that misplaced periods are a common source of program bugs.One reason for the trouble is the inconsistent use of the period required by the COBOL standard [ANSI74].Sometimes the period is absolutely necessary, e.g. to terminate an IF statement, and sometimes it is forbidden, e.g.within an IF statement.More generally, the period is required to terminate a conditional statement and forbidden within said conditional statement.(A complete list of conditional statements appears as Appendix A).Finally, sometimes the period is optional, e.g. after an imperative statement not contained in a conditional statement.A second reason for the trouble is the period's small size which makes it easily overlooked.