pTAL Reference Manual (H06.03+)

Introduction to pTAL
HP pTAL Reference Manual—523746-005
1-6
Pointers
Pointers
A pTAL program can declare pointers (variables that can contain addresses) and use
them to access locations throughout memory. You can store addresses in pointers
when you declare them or later in your program.
Data Operations
A pTAL program can copy a contiguous group of words or bytes and compare one
group with another. It can scan a series of bytes for the first byte that matches (or fails
to match) a given character.
Bit Operations
A pTAL program can perform bit deposits, bit extractions, and bit shifts.
Built-in Routines
A pTAL program can use built-in routines to convert data types and addresses, test for
an ASCII character, or determine the length, offset, type, or number of occurrences of
a variable.
Compiler Directives
You can use directives to control a compilation. You can, for example, check the syntax
in your source code or control the content of compiler listings.
Modular Programming
You can divide a large pTAL program into modules, compile them separately, and then
link the resulting object files into a new object file.
System Services
Your program can ignore many things such as the presence of other running programs
and whether your program fits into memory. For example, programs are loaded into
memory for you and absent pages are brought from disk into memory as needed.