Guardian Application Conversion Guide

New Guardian Procedures
Conversion Concepts
096047 Tandem Computers Incorporated 2–3
String Parameters
The D-series procedures use a variable-length string for:
All kinds of file names, including disk file names, device file names, and D-series
process file names. A D-series process file name parameter represents either a
named or unnamed process or a named process pair.
Node names.
Process-descriptor parameters, which are a specific form of D-series process file
name returned by Guardian procedures.
Declaring String Parameters. Declare a string parameter as a reference parameter with its
length specified as a separate integer value. The ZSYSTAL, ZSYSCOB, ZSYSC, and
ZSYSPAS files contain declarations that you can use to declare string parameters. In a
TAL program, you might declare a file name, a node name, and a process descriptor as
follows:
! File name declaration
STRING .file^name[0:ZSYS^VAL^LEN^FILENAME-1];
INT file^name^length;
! Node name declaration
STRING .node^name[0:ZSYS^VAL^LEN^SYSTEMNAME-1];
INT node^name^length;
! Process descriptor declaration
STRING .descriptor[0:ZSYS^VAL^LEN^PROCESSDESCR-1];
INT descriptor^length;
A file-name input parameter must fill the entire string for the number of characters
specified by the length and must not include any leading or trailing blanks or null
characters (that is, the name buffer can include blanks or null characters only after the
specified length).
The letters in a file name can be uppercase or lowercase (or a mixture of both cases);
the Guardian procedures are not case-sensitive with regard to the letters.
For other examples of TAL, COBOL85, C, and Pascal file-name and process-descriptor
string declarations, refer to Sections 3 through 6.