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[pzmohanty]

Hi ,

I just read somewhere that , the major enhancement of COBOL 85 over COBOL 74 is the fact that COBOL 85 is a Block Structured Language.

What exactly do we mean by Block Structured language.

Can anybody give me an feature of COBOL 85 which makes it Block Structured language.

Thanks in advance
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Priya Ranjan Mohanty
Consultant
Kanbay Software (I) pvt. Ltd.
Hyderabad

[kolusu]

pzmohanty,

I guess you meant Structured programming. Cobol 85 is a structured programming language. Structured programming typically recommends simple, hierarchical program flow structures. The difference between regular programming approach and structured programming is that structured programs get rid of GO TO statements and the whole programs can be represented in a Top-Down design. This design is possible because of existence of 3 basic structures:

a. Sequence Structure: within sequence structure all functions are executed in their physical order. The structure has one entry point and one exit point.

b. Selection Structure: within selection structure execution of the function depends on whether conditions true or false. The structure has one entry point and one exit point.

c. Iteration Structure: within iteration structure the execution of the function will be reiterated over and over again until condition becomes true. The structure has one entry point and one exit point. All these structures have one entry point and one exit point. Because of this if the programs is written by using only these structures, the whole programs will have one entry point and one exit point.


The advantage of structured programming is that once the programs gets rid of GO TO statements and is represented by Top-Down Structure which is visible and easy to understand, as the programs has a specific (hierarchical) structure and it is easy to debug the programs.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Kolusu
_________________
Kolusu
www.linkedin.com/in/kolusu