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From: cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP (Christopher F. Chiesa)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Using the message facility with Pascal
Message-ID: <1447@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 8-Nov-87 12:58:44 EST
Article-I.D.: bsu-cs.1447
Posted: Sun Nov  8 12:58:44 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Nov-87 04:03:03 EST
References: <8711081007.AA04519@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 32
Summary: Declaring system stuff in Vax Pascal Questions/Answers


Regarding use of assorted system-defined status codes in Vax Pascal, 
doesn't the statement

[INHERIT ('SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET')]

at the top of the program, automatically include for you most, if not
all, the system-defined status-code values, labels, etc. ?  I found this
in the Pascal Reference Manual and/or User's Guide (can never quite keep
the two straight), and it seems to work fine for most everything, EXCEPT:

*  SYS$LIBRARY:STARLET (.PEN) ("environment file" - anyone know just what
THAT means?) does NOT include definitions for the numerous LIB$ routines.
Annoyingly, one seems forced to "puzzle out" on one's own the appropriate
declarations for most of these.  Can anyone suggest some "general guide-
lines" for creating the appropriate declarations?  Specifically, I've had
trouble getting LIB$GETJPI to return the USERNAME of the person executing
the program.  Don't want to use pure $GETJPI as defined in STARLET -- too
many "mysterious" (to me) parameters and data structures needed.

Part of the problem would be solved if someone can tell me how to declare
a PROCEDURE or FUNCTION so as to allow "optional" parameters - i.e., so
that you can omit a parameter when actually calling the routine.  I know
it's possible because the system-service routines defined in STARLET.PEN
allow you to omit parameters, but I haven't been able to get this to
work in my own declarations, particularly for LIB$ routines.  Any informa-
tion would be greatly appreciated; I feel like it shouldn't take much to
clarify this for me - I feel that I'm just misunderstanding the effects
of an "attribute" or two somewhere.

Chris Chiesa,
Ball State University CS Dept.
Muncie, IN