OSF DCE Application Development Guide--Core Components

Interface Deﬁnition Language

format conversion by transmitting that type as an array of byte.

17.13.6 The void Type

The IDL void type is speciﬁed as follows:

void

The void type may be used to do the following:

• Specify the type of an operation that does not return a value

• Specify the type of a context handle parameter, which must be void*

• Specify the type of a NULL pointer constant, which must be void*

17.13.7 The handle_t Type

The IDL primitive handle type is speciﬁed as follows:

handle_t

A handle_t is a primitive handle type that is opaque to application programs but

meaningful to the RPC runtime library. Section 17.14.8 discusses primitive and

nonprimitive handle types.

17.13.8 The error_status_t Type

IDL provides the following predeﬁned data type to hold RPC communications status

information:

error_status_t

The values that can be contained in the error_status_t data type are compatible with the

unsigned long and unsigned32 IDL data types. These data types are used for status

values in the DCE.

124245 Tandem Computers Incorporated 17− 23