NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

Compiler Directives
Compiler Operation
8–12 106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Compiler Directives A compiler directive is an NCL statement used to control the compiler during the
compilation of an NCL procedure. Compiler directives begin with two percent signs
(%%). A compiler directive must be the only statement on an NCL source line, and it
cannot continue to another line.
Here is the general syntax of a compiler directive:
%% directive
Table 8-5 summarizes the compiler directives. It is followed by a description of the
compiler directives in alphabetic order.
Table 8-5. Compiler Directives
Directive Meaning
DEFINE Defines a symbol with a textual value.
INCLUDE Specifies the name of another source file to be logically included in the current NCL
procedure or function.
OPTIONS Controls the compilation of unrecognized verbs and unknown system variables.
UNDEFINE Removes a textual definition from a symbol.
You cannot precede a compiler directive with a label. You can precede a compiler
directive with blanks or a comment. You can follow a compiler directive by blanks or
a comment, providing that the comment terminates before the end of the line. Lexical
elements on the compiler directive are delimited by blanks. Any comments on the line
are logically replaced by a blank prior to analyzing the line.
A compiler directive is not recognized if it is read as the continuation of another
statement. It is not recognized if it is within an open comment or a quoted string. In
this case, the compiler directive becomes part of the comment or quoted string. The
compiler does not produce object code for a compiler directive.
%%DEFINE The %%DEFINE directive defines a symbol with a textual value. The symbol is
replaced by the textual value during compilation.
%%DEFINE symbol text
symbol
must be a symbol, but not a number. Alphabetic characters in symbol are case-
sensitive.