The positiveSignIndicator build descriptor option is used only in iSeries® environments to improve performance.
If the COBOL compiler sets all the positive-sign characters to C, EGL typically changes all the NUM and PACF variables to F at run time. Similarly, if the compiler sets all the characters to F (the default), EGL changes all the NUMC, DECIMAL, and MONEY variables to C.
Therefore, the typical purpose of specifying the positiveSignIndicator build descriptor option is to increase performance. If your code includes more occurrences of NUMC, DECIMAL, and MONEY variables (as compared to NUM and PACF variables), you can improve performance by setting positiveSignIndicator to C. In this case, EGL will generate less code because it will have fewer variables to change at run time.
Two additional values are available to override the default EGL behavior. Setting positiveSignIndicator to F-ALL keeps EGL from changing all the NUMC, DECIMAL, and MONEY variables to C. Likewise, C-ALL keeps EGL from changing NUM and PACF variables to F.
If your code is exclusively NUM and PACF variables, or you want all variables to have an F positive sign, a significant performance benefit can be obtained by selecting F-ALL. This prevents the generation of any of the EGL runtime calls to change the sign. Similarily, if your code is exclusively NUMC, DECIMAL and MONEY variables, or you want all variables to have an C positive sign, a significant performance benefit can be obtained by selecting C-ALL.