IBM DOS/VS COBOL accepts a NOTE statement in the PROCEDURE division:
NOTE character string(s)
The entire statement is treated as a comment.
If the NOTE statement is not first statement in its paragraph, then it ends
1. at the first period followed by a space, or
2. at the beginning of the next paragraph, or
3. at the end of the source code,
whichever comes first.
If the NOTE statement is the first statement in a paragraph, then it ends
1. at the beginning of the next paragraph, or
2. at the end of the source code,
whichever comes first. Hence all subsequent statements in the same paragraph are also ignored.
When it is in the IBM DOS/VS COBOL compatibility mode, ACUCOBOL-GT accepts the NOTE statement as IBM DOS/VS COBOL does, with one slight difference. When a NOTE statement is the first statement in a paragraph, IBM DOS/VS COBOL parses subsequent statements in the same paragraph, and presumably flags any syntax errors found in them. ACUCOBOL-GT, however, does not perform any syntax parsing in such cases.