User guide

6 Host Language Interface
058058 Tandem Computers Incorporated 6–1
The ENFORM interface procedures provide you with the ability to use a host
programming language as a high-level access facility to a relational data base. The
ENFORM interface procedures communicate with the query processor.
By interfacing with ENFORM through the host programming language input/output
interfaces, a host language program retrieves records at a fraction of the programming
effort required by direct access. In addition if the file types, access keys, and logical
design of the data base change, the host language program does not need modification
because ENFORM obtains this information from the data dictionary.
When you write a host program in Tandem COBOL, FORTRAN, or TAL (Transaction
Application Language), the host program interfaces with the query processor through
a precompiled query. The compiled query must contain one and only one FIND
statement. The record description for the new output file must be added to the
dictionary before the query is compiled. These steps are shown in (1) and (2) of
Figure 6-1.