Accessing Files Programmer's Guide (32650-90885)

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1 Introduction
Almost every kind of organization in our modern society is concerned in some way with
information. Corporations keep track of their business dealings, political groups keep lists
of potential voters, and families remember whose turn it is to do the dishes. When an
organization needs to deal with large amounts of information in an efficient, dependable
manner, a computer can be an indispensable aid. This manual describes the MPE/iX file
system that is responsible for handling information in the 900 Series of the HP 3000
Family.
Figure 1-1. shows the relationships among your program, the MPE/iX file system, the
MPE/iX I/O System, and the actual hardware of the system. Notice that the MPE/iX file
system serves as the interface between you and the rest of the system.
Figure 1-1. File System Interface
The file system is the part of the MPE/iX operating system that manages information
being transferred or stored with peripheral devices. It handles various input/output
operations, such as the passing of information to and from user processes, compilers, and
data management subsystems. Conceptually, these data transfers are very simple:
information is arranged into data elements within a record; this record is then input,