TAL Programmer's Guide

Glossary
Glossary–6 096254 Tandem Computers Incorporated
extended stack. A data block named $EXTENDED#STACK that is created in the
automatic extended data segment by the compiler when you declare extended indirect
arrays and structures.
EXTENSIBLE procedure. A procedure that you declare using the EXTENSIBLE keyword;
a procedure to which you can add formal parameters without recompiling its callers;
a procedure for which the compiler considers all parameters to be optional, even if
some are required by your program. Contrast with “VARIABLE procedure.”
external declarations file. A file that contains declarations for procedures declared in
other source files.
EXTERNAL procedure declaration. A procedure declaration that includes the EXTERNAL
keyword and no procedure body; a declaration that enables you to call a procedure
that is declared in another source file.
file ID. The last of the four parts of a file name.
file name. A fully qualified file ID. A file name contains four parts separated by
periods:
Node name (system name)
Volume name
Subvolume name
File ID
file system. A set of operating system procedures and data structures that allows
communication between a process and a file, which can be a disk file, a device, or a
process.
filler bit. A declaration that allocates a bit place holder for data or unused space in a
structure.
filler byte. A declaration that allocates a byte place holder for data or unused space in a
structure.
FIXED. A data type that requires a quadrupleword of storage and that can represent a
64-bit fixed-point number.
FOR statement. A statement that executes a pretest loop n times.
formal parameter. A specification, within a procedure or subprocedure, of an argument
that is provided by the calling procedure or subprocedure.
FORWARD procedure declaration. A procedure declaration that includes the FORWARD
keyword but no procedure body; a declaration that allows you to call a procedure
before you declare the procedure body.
fpoint. An integer in the range –19 through 19 that specifies the implied decimal point
position in a FIXED value. A positive fpoint denotes the number of decimal places to
the right of the decimal point. A negative fpoint denotes the number of integer places
to the left of the decimal point; that is, the number of integer digits to replace with
zeros leftward from the decimal point.