Source Forms 2.3 Source Forms Within a program, source code can be in free, fixed, or tab form. Fixed or tab forms must not be mixed with free form in the same source program, but different source forms can be used in different source programs. All source forms allow lowercase characters to be used as an alternative to uppercase characters. If the comment indicator appears within a source line, the comment extends to the end of the line. An all blank line is also a comment line.
Comments have no effect on the interpretation of the program unit.
If a semicolon is the last character on a line, or the last character before a comment, it is ignored. A statement can be continued for more than one line by placing a continuation indicator on the line. Comments can occur within a continued statement, but comment lines cannot be continued. Within a program unit, the END statement cannot be continued, and no other statement in the program unit can have an initial line that appears to be the program unit END statement. A label can precede any statement that is not part of another statement.