COBOL Manual for TNS/E Programs (H06.03+)

Glossary
HP COBOL Manual for TNS/E Programs—520347-003
Glossary-24
procedure
procedure. One of these:
•
A paragraph, a group of logically successive paragraphs, a section, or a group of
logically successive sections in the Procedure Division
Such a procedure functions as a unit of code to be executed by a PERFORM,
SORT, MERGE, or USE statement. Although good programming practice dictates
that procedures be composed of physically successive paragraphs or sections,
execution of a GO TO statement can extend the scope of a procedure to
paragraphs or sections that are logically but not physically successive.
•
Routines coded in TAL, as the routines of the operating system are, sometimes are
referred to as procedures.
procedure branching statement. A statement that causes the explicit transfer of control to
a statement other than the next executable statement in the sequence in which the
statements are written in the source program. The procedure branching statements
are: ALTER, CALL, EXIT, EXIT PROGRAM, GO TO, MERGE (with the OUTPUT
PROCEDURE phrase), PERFORM, and SORT (with the OUTPUT PROCEDURE
phrase).
procedure-name. A paragraph-name, a qualified paragraph-name, or a section-name in the
Procedure Division.
process.
1. A program that has been submitted to the operating system for execution, or a
program that is currently running in the computer.
2. An address space, a single thread of control that executes within that address
space, and the system resources required by that thread of control.
process identification number (PIN). An unsigned integer that identifies a process in a
processor module. Internally, a PIN is used as an index into the process control block
table.
process pair. Two instances of the same executable object file (called the primary process
and the backup process) that are executing in separate processors of a NonStop
system. Only the primary process is active, performing its tasks and passing
information about its progress to the backup (checkpointing). If the primary process
fails, the backup process becomes the primary process, continuing the tasks from the
site of the last checkpoint.
program name. The name of an object program.
program-name. A user-defined word that identifies a COBOL source program.
PROGRAM-STATUS. A special register to which the STARTBACKUP statement assigns a
value that reflects the success or failure of the creation of the backup process.
program unit. A single source program or object program.