An intrinsic is an external routine that can be
called by HP C or any language that the HP-UX operating system supports.
The intrinsic can be written in any supported language. However,
its formal parameters must be of data types that have counterparts
in HP C. This chapter describes the use of intrinsic functions in
HP C programs.
Intrinsics are used much like library functions, except that
users may write their own intrinsic routines, and then create an
INTRINSIC_FILE.
This file contains information about the number and type of parameters
of the intrinsic. It is similar to a C header file. Additionally,
the information in the INTRINSIC_FILE
is accessible by other compilers, such as Pascal or Fortran. This
will allow a single interface for multiple languages.
The body of an intrinsic routine is put into a library that
contains the bodies of other intrinsics. Then, the declarations
are put into an INTRINSIC_FILE.
When calling an intrinsic from a program, #pragma INTRINSIC
is used to specify the name of the intrinsic routine, and #pragma INTRINSIC_FILE
is used to specify the location of the declaration of the intrinsic
routine. Since the body of the intrinsic routine actually resides
in a user-built library, that library must be linked in explicitly.
