A
COBOL statement so
dangerous I can hardly bring myself to describe it.
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it, I guess.
The ALTER statement allows a programmer to amend the target of a labelled GOTO statement. That is,
PERFORM PARA-0200.
PERFORM PARA-0100.
EXIT.
PARA-0100.
GOTO.
PARA-0200.
ALTER PARA-0100 TO PROCEED TO
PARA-1050, PARA-2050, PARA-1057, PARA-3050,
PARA-3000, PARA-4000, PARA-4050, PARA-2050
DEPENDING ON REC-TYPE.
EXIT.
I guess, somewhere, there's a
COBOL programmer who will describe the behaviour that results from the above as
polymorphic... One such
statement in a program is
bad. In my experience, however, it becomes
endemic, something to be used at every
opportunity.
Goes hand in hand with excess use of periods.