Field Name Prefix on DCLGEN command

I strongly advise using the "Field Name Prefix" feature of the DCLGEN command. This causes each Cobol field in the DCLGEN to have the same prefix. This makes coding much easier, as it can eliminate the need to code Cobol "OF"s when referring to a field.

How many of your tables contain an account number field? A good many of them, probably. It is easier to code

MOVE WS-TEMP-ACCT-NUM TO VIFCACCT-ACCT-NUM

than

MOVE WS-TEMP-ACCT-NUM TO ACCT-NUM OF ACCT-TABLE.

Using prefixes, the programmer can tell at a glance which ACCT-NUM is being referred to.

The prefix name should be related to the table name. Our shop adopted a procedure in which we establish an 8 character 'short name' for each table. The short name is used as the prefix name, and is also used to build the table space name.

I feel so strongly about this that, years ago, before DCLGEN even had a "Field Name Prefix" feature, I wrote an edit macro that added a field name prefix to the DCLGEN output. It is still in use today.