RE: Same prefixes (was Re: It's That Time Again! etc.)

With external definitions, you can use PREFIX(whatever_) on your externally 
described files and add the prefixes at run time, rather than design time.

With the program defined files, you needed to add the prefixes to your file 
variable manually, so it was a fairly common practice to add a prefix to 
distinguish between the same fields in the different files.

Regards,

Jim Langston

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Handy [mailto:dhandy1@bellsouth.net]

Peter,

>This was generally considered a good idea way back in the days of yore (i.e.
>before externally-defined files),

Although I did in fact start this practice before the S/38 existed, why do
externally described files change whether it is a good idea?  The problem is
name collissions in RPG, and until qualified DS names that was true in all
flavors of RPG.

Qualified DS names makes for a more elegant solution, but how do external
definitions vs program described files weaken the argument for field name
prefixes?

Am I not seeing the forest for the trees?

Doug