Old style

[fireman957]

Just out of curiosity,
how many of you have seen the Alter statement
in a Cobol program? It was considered archaic
years ago. The funny fact is that I've been coding
in a OOP language that uses a similar contruct
that allow branching to a variable --

ie branch &variableA where &variableA is variable
that can be modified within the code.

Steve Lucas

 

[Lunker]

I've seen ALTER in my earlier days (mid 70's). When we developed our programming standards, we outlawed its use. Then in the mid 80's we started using a 4th gl for coding and they had a feature like you mentioned and everybody thought it was the greatest thing. I guess because it wasn't COBOL it was considered innovative.

 

[tcsbiz]

I believe the ALTER statement was removed from the COBOL specs. when COBOL-85 came along.

This type of construct is considered bad form in any language, like using goto's.

Just because a 4th gl or OOP language has it, doesn't mean it's good nor innovative.

It may be just an opinion but it's MY opinion.

 

[webrabbit]

I used ALTER quite a bit in the 60's. It made for very efficient code, and with the names I used, it was easy to follow. However, I quit using it because I saw how others abused it and made incredibly convoluted code. Then when I learned structured coding in the 70's, I quit using GO TO altogether. With the advent of COBOL-85, programming good structures got even easier.

The original CICS (MACRO Level) required the use of GO TO. Then IBM came out with Command-Level CICS, and that was the end of GO TO for me.

Any construct in any lanquage can be abused. ALTER was just one of the easiest to do so.