Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual (H06.10+, J06.03+)

SCREEN COBOL Source Program
HP NonStop Pathway/iTS SCREEN COBOL Reference Manual— 426750-003
2-12
Comment Lines
The sequence number area (1 through 6) assigns a number to each line of code or
labels a line with any combination of ASCII characters.
The positions following Margin R (73 through 80) represent the identification field.
Their contents, which can include any ASCII character, are treated as a comment, and
have no effect on the meaning of the program.
Figure 2-2 shows the ANSI standard reference format.
•
Division, section, and paragraph headers must begin in Area A. The first sentence
of a paragraph can begin on the same line as the paragraph header, provided at
least one space follows the period terminator of the paragraph name.
•
In general, SCREEN COBOL ignores the distinction between Area A and Area B.
The lexical elements of a source program can occur anywhere between Margin A
and Margin B.
•
Level numbers 01 and 77 must begin in Area A.
•
Level numbers 02-49, 66, and 88 can begin in either Area A or Area B.
•
An * or / in the indicator field indicates a comment; a - indicates continuation;
a ? indicates a compiler command line. If any other character appears in the
indicator field, the last character in the preceding line is assumed to be followed by
a space.
Comment Lines
Comment lines can appear anywhere in a SCREEN COBOL program. Comment lines
are indicated by an asterisk (*) or forward slash (/) character in the indicator field,
which is column 1 in the Tandem standard reference format and column 7 in the ANSI
standard reference format. These special characters indicate that the entire line is a
comment.
When a listing of the program is printed, with comment lines indicated by a forward
slash (/), a page eject is performed before printing the comment line.
Figure 2-2. ANSI Standard Reference Format
Area
A
Area
B
Sequence
Number Area
Indicator
Field
Identification
Field
009CDT .CDD
1234567 98 10111213 72... 73 ... 80
Margin
R