TAL Reference Manual

Glossary
Glossary—526371.001
Glossary-5
data space.
data space. The area of virtual memory that is reserved for user data and system data. The
current data space of your process consists of a user data segment, an automatic
extended data segment if needed, and any user-defined extended data segments.
data stack. The local and sublocal storage areas of the user data segment.
data type. A part of a variable declaration that determines the kind of values the variable
can represent, the operations you can perform on the variable, and the amount of
storage to allocate. TAL data types are STRING, INT, INT(32), UNSIGNED, FIXED,
REAL, and REAL(64).
data type alias. An alternate way to specify INT, REAL, and FIXED(0) data types. The
respective aliases are INT(16), REAL(32), and INT(64).
Debug. A machine-level interactive debugger.
DEFINE command. A TACL command that lets you specify a named set of attributes and
values to pass to a process.
DEFINE. A TAL declaration that associates an identifier with text such as a sequence of
statements.
definition structure. A declaration that describes a structure layout and allocates storage
for the structure layout. Contrast with referral structure
and template structure
dereferencing operator. A period (.) prefixed to an INT simple variable, which causes the
content of the variable to become the standard word address of another data item.
direct addressing. Data access that requires only one memory reference and that is
relative to the base of the global, local, or sublocal area of the user data segment.
directive. See compiler directive
DO statement. A statement that executes a posttest loop until a true condition occurs.
doubleword. A 32-bit storage unit for the INT(32) or REAL data type.
DROP statement. A statement that frees a reserved index register or removes a label from
the symbol table.
D-series system. A system that is running a D-series RVU version of the operating
system.
entry point. An identifier by which a procedure can be invoked. The primary entry point is
the procedure identifier specified in the procedure declaration. Secondary entry points
are identifiers specified in entry-point declarations.
entry-point declaration. A declaration within a procedure that provides a secondary entry
point by which that procedure can be invoked. The primary entry point is the procedure
identifier specified in the procedure declaration.