In a word, no!
As a general rule and a strongly recommended best practice, you should not use spaces in OpenEdge names.While modern operating systems can handle spaces in file and folder names, the interconnected suite of OpenEdge command-line utilities, scripts, and configuration files is not designed for them and can fail in unpredictable ways.
What about Database and Application Names?
No. Database names and application names are used as single-token identifiers in countless command-line utilities (`proserve`, `proutil`, `proshut`), scripts, and connection parameters. A command like `proserve my sports db` would be misinterpreted by the system as three separate arguments, not a single database name. The standard convention is to use hyphens or camelCase.
Good: `sports2000`, `my-sports-db`, `mySportsDb`
Bad: `my sports db`
We also avoid underscores in ProTop resource and friendlyNames.
Installation Path (DLC)
This is highly discouraged. While a modern Windows installer might technically allow you to install OpenEdge in a path with spaces (like `C:\Program Files\Progress`), it is a well-known source of problems.
Many of the scripts (batch files, shell scripts) and utilities that rely on the `$DLC` environment variable do not correctly quote the path. This can lead to "file not found" or "command not found" errors when a script tries to execute a command like `C:\Program Files\Progress\bin\proutil.exe` and interprets `C:\Program` as the command.
Best Practice: Always install OpenEdge in a path without spaces (e.g., `C:\Progress\OE12.8`, `D:\OpenEdge`).
Other OpenEdge Names (Tables, Fields, Variables, etc.) and ProTop resource (usually OpenEdge Names and friendlyNames
Spaces are not allowed in virtually all other OpenEdge identifiers, as they would violate the ABL syntax rules.
The Golden Rule
To avoid difficult-to-diagnose errors, the safest and most professional approach is to avoid spaces everywhere in the OpenEdge ecosystem. Stick to alphanumeric characters and use hyphens when you need a separator.