COBOL Std 1 Purpose and Scope
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1. Purpose and Scope
This document defines the baseline coding standard for COBOL programs targeting GnuCOBOL 4.x on Linux, with optional GixSQL pre-processing for embedded PostgreSQL access. It applies to all newly written programs, to programs undergoing significant modification, and to reverse-engineering or migration work.
The standard covers four concerns:
- Source-code layout and formatting
- Naming conventions for data items, paragraphs, copybooks, and files
- Structural and architectural patterns (divisions, tiers, method-dispatch)
- Error handling, embedded SQL, and output formatting rules
{{Ambox name = COBOL Std 1 Purpose and Scope{{subst:void|Don't change anything on this line. It will change itself when you save.}} subst = type = notice text = Compliance note — Existing programs may deviate from this standard. Any modification touching more than 20 % of a program's statements must bring the changed portions into conformance. }}