Rules to Remember

Some rules to remember while coding in DLCS are:

• Use special characters  :  ,  <  >  and '  in your data tokens (keyword names, function names, or function values) only if they are enclosed in single quotation marks. The quotation marks are not counted as part of the token.
• Use :; to specify the end of a statement.
• Do not use lowercase characters to specify your keyword names, function names, or function values (variables). Specify these exactly as they would appear after the command line is uppercased by the system at execution time with the language in effect.
• Only the first 72 characters of any line of the DLCS file are used. Any characters beyond 72 are ignored. You can use as many blanks as you want between tokens, and you can continue DLCS statements on the following line.
• Because only one system and one user DLCS file for an application can be active at any time, all command syntax definitions for an application are usually in one DLCS file. When both a user DLCS file and a system DLCS file have the same application ID name, the definitions in the user file override the definitions in the system file. If no user file is found for an application, the definitions in the system file are used.
• Your DLCS file must be merged with your user file for the application you currently have. You can have only one user table; therefore, if you have another command or receive a command from someone, you have to merge it with the other commands in the user table. (For example, if you want the CMS search order to find your command, define the command in a DLCS file with DMS application ID.)
• You can define the translation of some keywords to be the same as the keyword the command recognizes. For more information on translation, see the z/VM: CMS User's Guide.