MFXOPEN 

Free Format

Free format COBOL is selected using the SOURCEFORMAT"FREE" directive.

The first six characters are considered part of the normal source line and may contain COBOL source code. Column 1 takes the role of the indicator area as follows:

* comment line
/ comment line starting on a new page in the listing file
D or d followed by space, debugging line
$ special line (for example, directive, conditional compilation)
any other character normal source line

There are no continuation lines. Continuation of alphanumeric literals is achieved through concatenation (for example, "A" & "B").

There is no distinction between area A and area B.

There is no fixed right margin, though for practical purposes this implementation restricts the maximum length of a source line to 256 bytes of source when represented in UTF8 encoding.

Comment-entries are only allowed on the same line as the paragraph header and must not continue onto another line.