Re: newbie question on cobol syntax

In article <1177272149.938765.13260@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Mayer <mayer.goldberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello:

[snip]

Can someone please explain to me the function of the period in cobol,
what is the basis for the difference in syntax, and what is
recommended.

To work backwards... what is recommended is starting with the style of
code on your job-site (or learning what your instructor instructs you to
do), there is no 'the basis' but, quite possibly, a few different bases
and the function of the period is what, for the most part, what The Manual
says it to be.

(Even the term used to define this particular bit of punctuation varies
from one group to the next; some adherents to a primitive language which
serves as a basis for a bit of what Americans speak will insist on using
two words ('full stop') to describe it, rather than the one ('period')
which can be found in citations as early as the seventeenth century...
their reasons for doing this are still unknown but they are, at times,
*most* insistent.)

DD

.