>>>>In any project you'll have to explain/develop conventions.Forcing to use mdot is just as well an example of that. For fieldnames, using the three letter prefix has NOT been motivated by the var/field conflicts, but rather with the bonus that each fieldname is unique in your database. Therefore if you encounter a fieldname anywhere in SQL statements and elsewhere in your code, you know immediately where it orginates from. In SQL it will reduce the number of times to prefix fields with an alias to make clear from which table the field comes from ANYWHERE in your code.
>>>
>>>Of course, the big disadvantage of your naming convention is that you're giving up 4 (not 3) of the 10 characters you have to name a field, meaning that you have to find a meaningful description of the field in just 6 characters.
>>
>>Errr? VFP supports fieldnames up to 128 characters. We're not in the Fox2X days anymore,
>>
>
>If you're using DBCs. Not for free tables, which a lot of people seem to still be using.
>
>Tamar

Sorry but that is a way more serious issue than anything that has to do with any naming conventions.
Worrying about mdot in enterprise application while still using free tables seems silly