Use the COMPILE option only if you want to force full compilation even in the presence of serious errors.
All diagnostics and object code will be generated.
Do not try to run the object code if the compilation resulted in serious errors: the results could be unpredictable or an abnormal termination could occur.

COMPILE option syntax

Default is: NOCOMPILE(S)

Abbreviations are: C|NOC

Use NOCOMPILE without any suboption to request a syntax check (only diagnostics produced, no object code).
If you use NOCOMPILE without any suboption, several compiler options will have no effect because no object code will be produced, for example:
DECK, LIST, OBJECT, OFFSET, OPTIMIZE, SSRANGE, and TEST.

Use NOCOMPILE with suboption W, E, or S for conditional full compilation.
Full compilation (diagnosis and object code) will stop when the compiler finds an error of the level you specify (or higher), and only syntax checking will continue.