- In the ENVIRONMENT
DIVISION, put the SELECT statements in alphabetic order by file name. - In the FILE SECTION, put
the FD's in alphabetic order by file name. - In the WORKING-STORAGE
SECTION, group like independent items, such as accumulators and switches
into one group and name the group according to the item type such as
ACCUMULATORS or SWITCHES. Arrange these groups in alphabetic order by
group name. - In the WORKING-STORAGE
SECTION, group control fields together. Put the major control field first,
minor control field last, with others between and in order. - Put tables at the end of
the WORKING-STORAGE SECTION, so they can't wipe out other data items if an
index goes astray. - Code all the print
formatting lines together and in the order they are to be printed, report
headings, page headings, column headings, control headings, detail line,
control footings page footings, report footings. - Put 88-levels on anything
that has only a limited number of values. Use the associated condition
names in the PROCEDURE DIVISION. - When coding switches, provide
88-level items to turn them on and off. Use complementary names like
SW-VALID-DATE and SW-INVALID-DATE. - For file status items, code
88-levels for every status you expect to see and no others. Group the
statuses into subgroups of all files that are opened together so you can
code an 88 to test all of these statuses at once. - Wherever possible, break
fields down into subordinate fields. Even if the program doesn't need to
get at the subordinate items now, it might need to eventually. Chances are
that the original programmer has a record layout handy. The maintenance
programmer may not. - Always be helpful to the
next programmer. More time is spent on maintaining a program than
developing
Thursday, September 3, 2009
