I just took a break from coding a COBOL program to read this. Oh the irony.
Why would anyone write a COBOL program? Java is much quicker. I write all my jobs in Java now using PL/SQL packages for the business logic.
The problems I fixed were due to a different compiler, which is one of the drawbacks of COBOL. I had another COBOL program that had a Linkage Section for a call to another COBOL program. That was a nightmare.
I guess you get the PICTURE.