IBM OS/390 User Manual

Page of 673
Each field of a data set name consists of 1-8 alphameric characters and begins
with an alphabetic or national ($, @, and #) character. The fields must be
separated by periods. The total length of the name, including periods, must not
exceed 44 characters.
The data set naming conventions simplify the use of data set names. If the data
set name conforms to the conventions, you need specify only the user-supplied
name field (in most cases) when you refer to the data set. The system will add
the necessary qualifiers to the beginning and to the end of the name that you
specify.
For example, entering the TSO/E EDIT command
EDIT PAYROLL(PRTCHK) NEW COBOL
puts your terminal into the Input mode of EDIT on a new member (PRTCHK) of a
PDS with the name USERID.PAYROLL.COBOL where the USERID is the TSO/E
user ID from UADS. This does not work when using ISPF, however, but even in
this case you should use the descriptive qualifiers to provide a good indication of
the contents of your data sets, which will make it easier for you to work with
them.
In some cases, however, the system will prompt you for a descriptive qualifier.
Until you learn to anticipate these exceptions to the naming conventions, you
may wish to specify both the user-supplied name and the descriptive qualifier
when referring to a data set.
Using TSO/E, data sets can be created and edited by subcommands of EDIT
which reference line numbers or text within lines. The first method is called
line-number editing and the second, context editing. These two methods can be
used interchangeably. TSO/E does not offer a full screen edit capability. Again,
though, with the installation of the Interactive System Productivity Facility (ISPF)
program product a full screen editor is available to the TSO/E user and most
users would not choose to use the TSO/E EDIT command. In fact, most TSO/E
users will spend their entire session within ISPF using only its panels or
graphical user interface.
For detailed information on the TSO/E EDIT command see 
TSO Extensions
Command Reference. For information on ISPF see ISPF Getting Started.
Descriptive Qualifier
Data Set Contents
LOADLIST
Output listing from loader
OBJ
Object module
OUTLIST
Output listing from OUTPUT command
PLI
PL/I statements
TESTLIST
Output listing from TEST command
TEXT
Uppercase and lowercase text
VSEBASIC
VSBASIC statements
160
VSE to OS/390 Migration Workbook