Customer Reviews

Structured COBOL Methods 1997

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While just about every other COBOL textbook has adopted the use of scope terminators (such as END-IF) in COBOL programs, Paul Noll still prefers the old periods. Now that COBOL has scope terminators, the use of periods should be discouraged because they are known to make program changes more bug-prone. After all, the original intent of structured programming methods was to make programs less bug-prone.

I've read a number of books that purport to teach structured methods. This book is the best one I've found. It not only explains the theory behind it but also goes on to explain its practical appication. There is a section on top- down testing as well as various worked examples from batch to interactive applications. I liked the reference to the three critical coding principals. This book is definitely written by a programmer for programmers. It's easy to read and packed with valuable tips and techniques. A must for anyone wanting to write better, less error prone and more easily maintainable code.