## General Programming Guidelines

Writing an application program by using XDS and XOM APIs involves the following general steps before you begin coding:

1. Select the interface functions that you will need for your application and determine the parameters for the function calls.

2. Check for abstract OM classes and superclasses of objects that you will manipulate for inherited OM attributes in Part 4.

3. Find the correct symbolic constants of the appropriate packages; these can be found in the header files included with the GDS API, such as xdsbdcp.h.

4. Determine the error handling required.

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