SPI Common Extensions Manual

Glossary
SPI Common Extensions Manual—427508-001
Glossary-14
summary state
summary state. One of the generally defined possible conditions of an object with respect
to the management of that object. A summary state differs from a state in two ways.
First, a summary state pertains to the management of an object whereas a state can
convey other kinds of information about the object. Second, the set of summary states
is a common list defined the same way for all extended SPI subsystems whereas the
set of possible states differs from subsystem to subsystem. The SPI extensions define
a number of summary states, including STARTED, STOPPED, SUSPENDED,
ABORTING, and DEFINED.
syntax token. A token whose function is not to provide information for a command or
response but to bracket or group other tokens. Its use is analogous to that of a
punctuation symbol. The tokens that begin and end lists (the list tokens) are syntax
tokens. Compare with parameter token.
token. In SPI, a distinguishable unit in an SPI message. Programs place tokens in an SPI
buffer using the SSPUT procedure (except for header tokens, which are a special
case), and retrieve them from the buffer with the SSGET procedure. A token has two
parts: an identifying code—a token code—and a token value. For command and
response messages, a token normally represents a parameter to a command, an item
of information in a response, or control information for the subsystem. For event
messages, a token normally represents an item of information about an event or about
the event message itself. In TACL, an entity recognized by the #ARGUMENT built-in
function when parsing an argument string passed to a routine.
token code. In SPI, a 32-bit value that, as the first part of a token, lets any token be
identified and located within an SPI message. A token code consists of a token type
(16 bits) and a token number (16 bits). In TAL, TACL, and COBOL85, names are used
to represent token codes (ZSPI-TKN-SSID, for example). In DDL, a special definition
(using the TOKEN-CODE statement) that the DDL compiler translates into an SPI
token code. Token codes have symbolic names of the form subsys-TKN-name. See
also token map and qualified token code.
token data type. The part of the token code that defines the kind of value (such as an
integer or a file name) allowed for a token. Token data types have symbolic names of
the form subsys-TDT-name.
token length. The part of a token code that indicates the length in bytes of the
corresponding token value. A token length of 255 indicates that the token value has
variable length or a length greater than 254, in which case the first word of the token
value contains the (noninclusive) byte length of the rest of the token value.