TRANSFER Programming Manual

Correspondent Names
Naming TRANSFER Objects
069138, Update 1 to 040970 Tandem Computers Incorporated 4–3
defined, Benson-Ji* is sufficient to identify Benson-Jill unless another name also begins
with Benson-Ji.
You cannot use the asterisk if the resulting expression identifies more than one name
at the node; the name specified must be unique. If, for example, two correspondents
are defined at the node with the last name Smith, the entry Smith-* is ambiguous and
results in a resolution error.
Note Using an asterisk as the first part of a name results in significant performance penalties because the
TRANSFER delivery system must search through more records. For example, the name *-MARY is more
costly than the name SMITH-*.
A process uses a pattern to request a list of correspondent names, distribution list
names, folder names, or item names. A pattern is similar to a wild-card name. For
correspondent, distribution list, and folder name patterns, an asterisk is used to
indicate that any character or characters (zero or more) can appear in that position of
the name. For item name patterns, an asterisk can be used as the last character of a
name to indicate that a string of zero, one, or more characters can appear at this
location. A pattern, however, does not have to identify a unique name.
For example, a process requesting a list of all correspondents at the node named CHIC
with the last name of Jones can use the pattern:
JONES-* @ CHIC
Correspondent Names You can reference a correspondent from your program by entering the correspondent
name in the following format:
correspondent-name [ trigger [ node ] ]
correspondent-name
is a simple name that identifies the correspondent. A suggested format for naming
correspondents is:
lastname-firstname-middleinitial
trigger
is the character that introduces system names when they appear in
TRANSFER names. The at sign (@) is the default system trigger. For example,
BRADLEY_ANNE @TM designates a correspondent whose depot is located at
system \TM. The TRANSFER delivery system recognizes the system trigger
character and uses the system trigger whenever a name with a network qualifier is
set.
Embedded blanks are allowed between correspondent-name and trigger.