The computer scientist Howard E. Tompkins disagreed , and defended structured COBOL : `` COBOL programs with convoluted control flow indeed tend to ` cripple the mind ' '' , but this was because `` there are too many such business application programs written by programmers that have never had the benefit of structured COBOL taught well ... '' . In his dissenting response to Dijkstra 's article and the above `` offensive statement '' , computer scientist Howard E. Tompkins defended structured COBOL : `` COBOL programs with convoluted control flow indeed tend to ` cripple the mind ' '' , but this was because `` there are too many such business application programs written by programmers that have never had the benefit of structured COBOL taught well ... '' .