Data Type Mappings to Languages

Most of the information exchange across AIFs is accomplished through the use of scalar types, which do not require any special treatment. The scalar types include integers, short integers, and booleans.

For record types, appendix B provides the Pascal record declarations as well as the packing of the fields as implemented by the HP Pascal/iX compiler. This information should suffice to make the call usable from both Pascal and C.

For array types, AIFs allow you to specify dynamic length arrays as input. This is done by making the array a part of a simple record declaration. The first field is an integer specifying the number of elements in the array. The second field is the array, with at least as many elements as specified in the first field.

Conceptually, this record structure is merely an extension of the way strings are implemented on most Pascal compilers today. Upon return, the AIF updates the first field to denote, in AIFnnGET AIFs, the actual number of elements returned, and for AIFnnPUT AIFs, the number of elements where valid information is located. If information is truncated because not enough elements were provided to return all the valid information, the corresponding itemstatus_array element of an AIFnnGET call provides a warning.

Refer to the following manuals for further information on HP Pascal/iX:

Refer to the following manuals for further information on HP C/iX:

	CAUTION: If the C programming language is used, all AIF names must be specified in uppercase.