At my company, the standard going back at least 37 years has been to compile or assemble, then the job immediately NCAL links the object deck into an "object module" (not to be confused with PDSE "program object"). The object deck is discarded, the object module is saved.
I'm not sure *why* we do this, except that it makes it easier to link the object into composite load modules. Is this common? Or do other groups save the object deck? -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jonathan Scott Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2023 7:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Variable-Length Parameter List Attributes In the past, DC 0H'0' was preferred for defining labels because any DS, even of zero length, would cause a new TXT card to be started in the object deck, making it larger than necessary. The value is no longer needed, so DC 0H is allowed. If no alignment padding is required, DC 0H and DS 0H are equivalent, but if alignment padding is required (which would not occur within instructions) then DC 0H will pad with a zero byte and continue on the same object code TXT card, but DS 0H will simply start a new TXT card at the aligned location. Jonathan Scott, HLASM IBM Hursley, UK
