NIDL compiler options

The linkage editor and loader on MVS™ restricts the number of characters in an external name to 8 characters or less. For the code generated by the NIDL compiler to compile correctly on MVS, the external references greater than 8 characters need to be redefined to 8 characters or less. The data set USERDEFS.H contains a template for the information to be redefined.

Using the -inc option, you can specify the data set name of a header data set that contains redefines specific to your programs and stubs. If the -inc option is specified, the NIDL compiler generates code to #include the user-specified -inc data set name in the stub and switch code that it generates.

For example, the BANK sample program has a BANKDEFS.H data set, where all of the BANK external names greater than 8 characters are redefined. When the NIDL compiler is run against the BANK.IDL data set, if you specified -inc bankdefs, the #include for this data set is automatically generated in the two stubs and switch programs. The following is an example of the code:

#ifdef IBM370
#  include "ncsdefs.h"
#  include "bankdefs.h"
#endif