On 10/11/2010, at 12:50 AM, Bulat Ziganshin wrote:
i never programmed in COBOL, but afaik data structures usually was organized this way - together with level numbers at left. it was just easier to read it this way
The clue here is "level numbers". In a declaration like 01 Thingy 03 Wotsit 05 Uggle PIC X(5) 05 Zonko PIC 9(4) USAGE COMPUTATIONAL 03 Snork 05 Name PIC X(20) 05 Price PIC 9999V99 USAGE DISPLAY. the indentation is solely for the benefit of people. The compiler uses the *numbers* to figure out the structure. 01 Thingy 03 Wotsit 05 Uggle PIC X(5) 05 Zonko PIC 9(4) USAGE COMPUTATIONAL 03 Snork 05 Name PIC X(20) 05 Price PIC 9999V99 USAGE DISPLAY. would work every bit as well. The same is true of PL/I, which also used level numbers for structuring.