Re: EXTFLD Question

Scott,

As far as I can tell, there's no actual ADVANTAGE to using special
> characters like @ and $ in your variable names.  But there are
> disadvantages, so why do it?
>

The (former) "advantage" was attempting to convey as much meaning as
possible in short field names.  This was particularly true when dealing with
the 6 char length restrictions of legacy code.  So it became somewhat
natural for non-international aware programmers to use $ as a field suffix
to connotate currency amounts, # for numbers (or perhaps weight), and @ for
something else (eg, I've seen it used as a shop standard for fields holding
a percentage).  As a fieldname prefix, the letters sometimes held some other
shop meaning, such as Michael's comment that he "immediately knew the field
was program described".

Alas, even with the longer field names readily available in RPG IV, there
can be hordes of code using externally described files still with 6-char
field names.  So the usage may live on at shops which have no (current)
plans to support international installs.

That said, I fully agree that even for those who think the code will only
ever be used in their own locale, it is a good idea to avoid the use of
those characters in new work.

Doug