COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs

Glossary
HP COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs—522555-006
Glossary-37
unstructured file
unstructured file. A disk file organized as a byte stream. Each byte is directly addressable
by an application, which manages its own access to the file contents. In COBOL,
unstructured files are limited to sequential organization and access with fixed-length
records. The COBOL run-time routines handle any blocking and deblocking for
unstructured files, which can improve performance.
user-defined word. A COBOL word that you supply within the format of a clause or
statement.
user library.
1. An object code file that the operating system links to a program file at run time. A
program can have only one user library. See also TNS user library, TNS/R native
user library, and TNS/E native user library.
2. A library loadfile associated with a program so that it emulates the user library
feature of the operating system on TNS systems. For PIC programs on TNS/R and
TNS/E systems, the user library is a dynamic-link library (DLL). It is treated as if it
were the first library in the program's libList; thus it is searched first for symbols
required by the program. However, a user library does not appear in the program's
libList; instead, its name is recorded internally in the program's loadfile. A program
can be associated with at most one user library; the association can be specified
using the linker at link time or in a later change command, or at run time using the
process creation interfaces. (The /LIB …/ option to the RUN command in TACL
uses these interfaces.)
value parameter. See content parameter.
variable. A data item whose value a process can change.
variable-length record. A record associated with a file whose file description entry or sort-
merge file description entry permits records to contain a varying number of character
positions.
variable-occurrence data item. A table element which is repeated a variable number of
times. Such an item must contain an OCCURS DEPENDING ON clause in its data
description entry, or be subordinate to such an item.
verb. A word that expresses an action for the COBOL compiler or an object program to
take.
volume. A logical disk, which can be one or two magnetic disk drives. In HP NonStop™
S-series systems, volumes have names that begin with a dollar sign ($), such as
$DATA.