Basically, all names used (keywords) may be abbreviated:
command/statement names
operand names
keyword values
Names can be abbreviated as follows:
In compound names (name parts linked by a hyphen), portions can be omitted from right to left. The associated hyphen is omitted with a name part.
Within a name portion or a simple name, characters can be omitted from right to left.
A leading asterisk does not belong to the name it introduces. It is merely used to distinguish a keyword value from some other possible operand value whose range includes the string of the keyword value. The asterisk alone, even if it is unique, does not represent a valid abbreviation.
Keyword values in guided dialog and in the syntax representation are always indicated by a leading asterisk. The leading asterisk of a keyword value can be omitted if no alternative variable operand value is possible whose value range contains the name of the keyword value. This abbreviation option can be restricted to allow for potential extensions in subsequent versions. For reasons of compatibility, operand values which were previously written without a leading asterisk are still accepted without the asterisk.
The name or partial name of a keyword value can also contain a period (e.g. *V4.1 or *OSD-V2.0). The period is part of the (partial) name. If the name is abbreviated, the period must not be at the end of it.
For SDF to be able to interpret the abbreviated names correctly, the selected abbreviations must be unique in their immediate syntax environment. However, the syntax file may contain a minimum abbreviation for particular names. In this case, SDF will not accept any shorter input even if it would be unique.
Unique assignment is defined as follows:
a command name is unique among all valid command names. If a partial name of a command is specified in full, this command is unique compared to a second command in which the specified partial name is an abbreviation of the same part of the name. With, for example, the commands START-C-COMPILER and START-COBOL-COMPILER, the input START-C-COMP can only refer to the command START-C-COMPILER.
a statement name is unique among all valid statements of a loaded program
an operand name is unique among all valid operands of the specified command or statement on the same structure level (for an operand name in a lower-ranking structure, only the valid operand names of this structure are considered)
a keyword value is unique within the set of all possible values for the specified operand.
For example, the input MOD-SDF-OPT SYN-F=*NONE,GUI=*MIN is a possible abbreviation of MODIFY-SDF-OPTIONS SYNTAX-FILE=*NONE, GUIDANCE=*MINIMUM
The user manuals contain “guaranteed” abbreviations (emphasized by means of bold print in the text). These are not necessarily the shortest possible versions. However, they retain the basic meaning and will remain unique on a long-term basis. This cannot be ensured for any of the other abbreviations. Procedures should therefore contain only unabbreviated names, or guaranteed abbreviations, which also greatly enhances the clarity of the procedure.
In addition to the command or statement names, aliases may also be used in the manual. The defined command or statement alias is guaranteed in the long term. An alias comprises no more than 8 characters (A..Z), which are derived from the command or statement name. The alias cannot be further abbreviated. Example: MDSDFO instead of MODIFY-SDF-OPTIONS
The names listed in the manuals are also defined in the syntax files as standard names. These standard names will continue to be accepted even if the command names have been changed, albeit only in the unabbreviated form. For example, if the command name CREATE-FILE were changed to GENERATE-FILE, the entry CREATE-FILE would still be accepted, but CR-F would be rejected. For this reason, if procedures are to be completely immune against the renaming of commands, all names must be specified unabbreviated.