Using RUN and #NEWPROCESS Options
Initiating and Communicating With Processes
107365 Tandem Computers Incorporated
5–3
Sending Information at
Initiation Time
You can supply IN and OUT files for processes that accept input from an IN file and
write to an OUT file. This mechanism does not allow you to evaluate the results of
each request and make decisions before the next request; it does, however, provide a
way to send a set of requests to a process.
In addition to supplying IN and OUT files, the following three commands send
information to a new process:
ASSIGN associates a physical file name with a logical file name.
PARAM associates parameter values with parameter names.
DEFINE allows you to specify a named set of attributes and values for a process.
TACL stores the associated values until you log off or until you delete the association
explicitly.
The following paragraphs provide an overview of the use of these three commands.
The TACL Reference Manual contains additional information about each command.
Assigning File Names
The ASSIGN command allows you to pass file names and, optionally, file
characteristics to programs. ASSIGN associates a physical file name with a logical file
name. The physical file name is any valid file name. The logical file name is defined
and used within the program you are starting.
The following code assigns the file DATAFILE to the logical file name FT002 for use by
a FORTRAN program,
forcalc
, that accesses the logical file FT002.
14> ASSIGN FT002, datafile
15> forcalc
TACL stores the assigned values and sends those values to requesting processes in the
form of assign messages. TACL does not interpret the assigned values—that task
must be performed by the application program.
A new process must request its ASSIGN messages (if any) following receipt of the
startup message. The COBOL and FORTRAN compilers provide the code for this
function. TAL programs that use ASSIGN commands must provide their own code
for handling ASSIGN messages.
The LOGOFF command deletes existing assignments.
Defining Parameter Values
PARAM allows you to pass parameter values to a process. PARAM associates an
ASCII value with a parameter name. The parameter name is an identifier that is
defined and used within the program you are starting.
Use the following code to set a parameter named DEVICE_TYPE to the value 2 prior to
running a program called
runit
:
15> PARAM DEVICE_TYPE 2
16> runit