THIS APPENDIX CONTAINS A COMPLETE LISTING of the subroutine library described and used throughout this book. The subroutine library resides in a single, self-sufficient procedure containing a collection of DCL subroutines that can be used by DCL applications to perform common but nontrivial operations. The library is yours to modify and expand as required by your applications.

Each subroutine includes a block comment describing its function, parameters, and any return value. When the library is used for production applications, the comments should be moved to the end of the procedure so that they do not slow down its execution.

The general format of a call to a subroutine is as follows:

    $   @<span class="emphasis"><idirectory</i></span>:subroutine-library <span class="emphasis"><iname parameter</i></span>  

The directory portion specifies the disk and directory containing the subroutine library. The first parameter, name, is the name of the desired subroutine. Additional parameters are required to specify the exact operation to be performed.

The examples in this book assume that the personal command LIBCALL is defined in the application's initialization code. The command is defined as follows:

    $   libcall = "@<span class="emphasis"><idirectory</i></span>:subroutine-library"

This personal command improves the readability of a subroutine call and takes up less space on the command line:

   $   libcall <span class="emphasis"><iname</i></span> parameter  

The subroutine library is self-sufficient and does not depend on any symbols or logical names defined by its...