Writing Clean, Elegant Procedural Code (BASIC): Is There Such a Thing?

Question

I learned to code in OO languages. I've always been interested in design patterns, clean code, etc., etc. - you know the type.

Now at work I'm using a BASIC dialect. Given modern programming values, should we try to carry over these same principles to new procedural code?

I'm pondering the following issues, and I wondering if I'm on the right lines.

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Variable Names

Variables are not strongly typed (nightmare!), they're given short names and written in ALL CAPS (why?!) - basically I find them hard to read and they could be anything. Once upon a time, I'm sure XCNT = 1 would have offered performance gains over int_EXISTINGCUSTOMERCOUNT = 1, but we're past that now - surely? I choose the verbose name here.

GOSUB

I want to break down long blocks of code down into multiple smaller blocks. Internally, GOSUB is used (over a FUNCTION) if the helper is not re-usable by other programs / functions. Given its ability to add / modify variables without the safety of scoping (as we know it in the OO world) GOSUB scares me.

This is typical:

GOSUB GET_BEST_CUSTOMER
IF RC = 0 THEN CRT CNAME

But I would write:

rc_GETBESTCUSTOMER = 1 ; !Default exception
str_CUSTOMERNAME = ""
GOSUB GET_BEST_CUSTOMER ; !set rc_GETBESTCUSTOMER, populate str_CUSTOMERNAME
IF(rc_GETBESTCUSTOMER = 0) THEN
    CRT str_CUSTOMERNAME
END

With the caveat that GET_BEST_CUSTOMER would only modify rc_GETBESTCUSTOMER and str_CUSTOMERNAME in 'global' scope.

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There's more, but it's all along the same lines. Given the editor of choice (Notepad++), I'd say my coding style makes the code easier to read and understand - therefore easier to maintain. But I'm sure some BASIC die-hard would readily tell me I'm doing it all wrong.