HP 3000 Manuals

ANYPARM External Call Feature [ HP Business BASIC/XL Reference Manual ] MPE/iX 5.0 Documentation


HP Business BASIC/XL Reference Manual

Appendix G  ANYPARM External Call Feature 

Introduction 

The HP Business BASIC/XL ANYPARM external feature is used with programs
that were originally written in BASIC/V. Although calls to externals are
easy to code in an HP Business BASIC/XL program, understanding and
writing the externals that use the ANYPARM interface are more difficult
than for normal externals.  Therefore, use the ANYPARM external only when
the HP Business BASIC/XL normal external call interface is too
restrictive.  In fact, you should rarely have to use this feature.  This
appendix is a technical discussion of the ANYPARM feature.  It explains
how it works and how it can be used.

This appendix contains the following information:

          Table G-1.  Information in ANYPARM External Call Feature 

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|                       |                                                                  |
|        Section        |                           Information                            |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| Overview of Calling   | This section contains a brief general introduction to the        |
| Externals             | process of calling externals.                                    |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| An Overview of        | This section contains an overview of the ANYPARM external.  It   |
| ANYPARM               | explains general considerations when using the ANYPARM external. |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| ANYPARM Calls From HP | This section explains the call syntax for two methods of calling |
| Business BASIC/XL     | ANYPARM externals.                                               |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| Writing ANYPARM       | This section contains the requirements for writing the external  |
| External Procedures   | procedure, as well as the requirements for HP Business           |
|                       | BASIC/XL's data structures.                                      |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| Example of a Simple   | This section is a simple example external that has an ANYPARM    |
| Pascal ANYPARM        | formal parameter interface written in Pascal.  The HP Business   |
| Procedure             | BASIC/XL program that calls the external is also included.       |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| Example of a Simple C | This section is a simple example external that has an ANYPARM    |
| ANYPARM Procedure     | formal parameter interface written in C. The HP Business         |
|                       | BASIC/XL program that calls that procedure is also included.     |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| Pascal Data           | This section is a program that contains Pascal data structures   |
| Structures for        | required for writing ANYPARM externals.  This provides all the   |
| ANYPARM Calls         | constant declarations and type definitions that allow you to     |
|                       | manipulate any of the actual parameters passed from an HP        |
|                       | Business BASIC/XL program.                                       |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| A Pascal ANYPARM      | This section is an example program and a memory display of a     |
| Procedure Designed to | call from HP Business BASIC/XL to an external procedure.  The    |
| Process Any Parameter | example demonstrates how to call an ANYPARM external that is     |
|                       | capable of processing any of HP Business BASIC/XL's data types.  |
|                       |                                                                  |
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|                       |                                                                  |
| Differences Relative  | This section explains the differences between HP Business        |
| to BASIC/V            | BASIC/XL and BASIC/V that are relevant to the ANYPARM External.  |
|                       |                                                                  |
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