CRE Programmer's Guide

About This Guide
Common Run-Time Environment (CRE) Programmer’s Guide—528146-004
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Audience
The SCREEN COBOL product is also excluded from COBOL discussions in this guide
unless specifically mentioned.
To reduce confusion between the current product name and compiler-specific or
platform-specific behaviors, this guide now uses “COBOL” to refer to the language
when a more specific distinction is not needed or is obvious from context. “COBOL85”
is used only to refer to the HP product or to the TNS compiler in the Guardian
environment. “TNS COBOL” therefore includes the COBOL85 compiler, the OSS
cobol compiler, and the TNS version of the COBOL run-time library, while “native
COBOL” can refer to either the TNS/R or TNS/E compiler.
Audience
This guide is intended for system and application programmers familiar with HP
NonStop servers and the HP NonStop operating system. Readers of this guide should
be familiar with the reference manuals and programmer’s guides of the languages in
which their programs are written.
Organization
This guide covers these topics:
Section 1, Introducing the CRE, describes run-time environments and how they affect
programs.
Section 2, CRE Services, describes the services provided by the CRE, such as
program initialization and termination, file sharing, trap handling, heap allocation and
heap management.
Section 3, Compiling and Binding Programs for the TNS CRE, shows how to compile
and bind programs to run in the TNS CRE.
Section 4, Compiling and Linking Programs for the Native CRE, shows how to compile
programs to run in the native CRE.
Section 5, Using the Common Language Utility (CLU) Library, explains how to use the
functions provided by the Common Language Utility (CLU) library.
Section 6, CRE Service Functions, describes CRE functions that handle file sharing,
$RECEIVE, program termination, and traps.
Section 7, Math Functions, describes the standard math, 64-bit logical, and decimal-
conversion functions provided by the CRE.
Section 8, String and Memory Block Functions, describes the string and memory-block
functions provided by the CRE.
Section 9, Common Language Utility (CLU) Library Functions, describes the syntax of
the functions in the Common Language Utility (CLU) library.