A Look at Procedure Oriented Programming

Conventional programming, using high level language such as COBOL, PASCAL and C is commonly known as Procedure-Oriented Programming (POP). In the procedure Oriented Approach, the problem is viewed as a sequence of thing to be done such as reading, calculating and printing. A number of functions are written to accomplish these tasks. The focus is on function

Structure of Procedure Oriented Programming

The technique of hierarchical decomposition has been used to specify the task to be completed for solving a problem.

Some characteristics exhibited by procedure-oriented programming are:

·         Emphasis is on doing thing (algorithms).

·         Large programs are divided into smaller programs known as functions.

·         Most of the functions share global data.

·         Data move openly around the system from function to function.

·         Functions transform data from one form to another.

·         Employs top-down approach in program design.

Drawbacks of Procedure Oriented Programming:

·         It emphasis on doing things. Data is given a second class status even through the data is the reason for the existence of the program.

·         Since every function has complete access to the global variables, the new programmer can corrupt the data accidentally by creating function. If new data is to be added, all the function needed to be modified to access the data.