Using "D" lines for debugging and documentation in COBOL

Using "D" lines in COBOL can help debug and document your programs. 

In all of my COBOL programs, I code an additional print file and 
documenting/debugging statements, such as:

"STRING 'factor 1 = '
        FACTOR1
        ', factor 2 = '
        FACTOR2
        ', result = '
        RESULTFIELD
        DELIMITED BY SIZE INTO INFO
 PERFORM INFO-TRACE"
"MOVE 'subprogram XY now being called' TO INFO  PERFORM INFO-TRACE"
"STRING 'returned from subprogram XY, returncode was ' RETURNCODE DELIMITED 
BY SIZE INTO INFO"  PERFORM INFO-TRACE" and so on. INFO-TRACE is part of copied 
subroutines and prints the contents of INFO. Additional in each paragraph I code 
"MOVE paragraph-name TO PARAGRAPH PERFORM PARA-TRACE" PARA-TRACE is another part 
of copied subroutines to print the Name of the paragraph.To anhance readability 
the paragraphs are printed at column 1, INFO is printed at column 4.When I test 
my programs, each of them will print a complete list of all run paragraphs and 
all of the INFOs I coded, helping to see which decisons the program made, 
intermediate results and so on. These lists are especially helpful in tests with 
many subprograms -- each of them generates its own list.

All the lines containing these statements I mark with "TRACED" in columns 1-6, 
and the "USE FOR DEBUGGING" clause is NOT used. After the testing has been done, 
I change the debug/document statements (including the additional print file and 
the copied subroutines) using only 1 SEU-command:

"c 'TRACED ' 'TRACE D' 1 7 a"
moving the "D" from column 6 to column 7.
The next compilation of the program will treat the statements as comments.

If necessary, the statements can again be set in function using the SEU-command "c 'TRACE D' 'TRACED ' 1 7 a" and a new compilation.

This was first published in January 2001

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