TAL Programmer's Guide

Running Programs
Running and Debugging Programs
096254 Tandem Computers Incorporated 16–3
Passing Run-Time
Parameters
You can pass parameters to a program at run time in the RUN command. The syntax
and meaning of the parameters are dictated by the program. For example, you can run
the program AVERAGE and pass five parameters to the program as follows:
RUN average 8 99 571 28 5
You can group several words into a single parameter by enclosing them in quotation
marks; for example:
RUN mystery "The butler did it."
You can include a quotation mark as part of a parameter by using two quotation
marks; for example:
RUN books """Raw Deal"" by I. M. Poor"
Stopping Programs You can let a program execute until completion or until a run-time error stops the
program. You can also stop a program before it completes execution in any of the
following ways:
If the program runs in NOWAIT mode, enter the STOP command at the TACL
prompt.
If the program runs in WAIT mode, press the BREAK key and enter the STOP
command at the TACL prompt.
In a C-series source file, call the STOP system procedure. (STOP ends a process
normally and ABEND ends a process abnormally.) Declarations for system
procedures are located in the EXTDECS file.
In a D-series source file written for a language-specific run-time environment
outside the CRE, call the PROCESS_STOP_ system procedure.
PROCESS_STOP_ replaces STOP and ABEND; it ends a process normally or
abnormally depending on the parameter you specify, as described in the Guardian
Procedure Calls Reference Manual.
In a D-series source file written for the CRE, call the CRE_TERMINATOR_ routine,
described in the CRE Programmer’s Guide .
When a program stops, it can return a status message, a completion code value, and
additional information to the process that started it (usually a TACL product).
Run-Time Errors Some programming errors or program-usage errors are detected at run time rather
than at compile time (for example, arithmetic overflow TRAP#2). The Guardian
Procedure Errors and Messages Manual lists system run-time diagnostic messages. The
Guardian Programmer’s Guide provides information on error processing and error
recovery.