Conventions used in this document

Typographical conventions

The following table explains the typographical conventions used in this document.

Table 2. Typographical conventions
Typeface Indicates Example
bold Commands, executable names, compiler options and pragma directives If you specify -O3, the compiler assumes -qhot=level=0. To prevent all HOT optimizations with -O3, you must specify -qnohot.
italics Parameters or variables whose actual names or values are to be supplied by the user. Italics are also used to introduce new terms Make sure that you update the size parameter if you return more than the size requested.
monospace Programming keywords and library functions, compiler built-in functions, examples of program code, command strings, or user-defined names If one or two cases of a switch statement are typically executed much more frequently than other cases, break out those cases by handling them separately before the switch statement.

Syntax diagrams

Throughout this document, diagrams illustrate XL C/C++ syntax. This section will help you to interpret and use those diagrams.

Sample syntax diagram

The following syntax diagram example shows the syntax for the #pragma comment directive.

Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagram    (1)     (2)          (3)           (4)     (5)   .-compiler--------------------------------------------------.    (9)  (10)
>>--------#-------pragma-------comment-------(-------+-date------------------------------------------------------+--)------------><
                                                     +-timestamp-------------------------------------------------+
                                                     |               (6)                                         |
                                                     '-+-copyright-+-------+-----------------------------------+-'
                                                       '-user------'       |   (7)                        (8)  |
                                                                           '-,-------"--token_sequence--"------'
 

Notes:
  1. This is the start of the syntax diagram.
  2. The symbol # must appear first.
  3. The keyword pragma must appear following the # symbol.
  4. The name of the pragma comment must appear following the keyword pragma.
  5. An opening parenthesis must be present.
  6. The comment type must be entered only as one of the types indicated: compiler, date, timestamp, copyright, or user.
  7. A comma must appear between the comment type copyright or user, and an optional character string.
  8. A character string must follow the comma. The character string must be enclosed in double quotation marks.
  9. A closing parenthesis is required.
  10. This is the end of the syntax diagram.

The following examples of the #pragma comment directive are syntactically correct according to the diagram shown above:

   #pragma
   comment(date)
   #pragma comment(user)
   #pragma comment(copyright,"This text will appear in the module")  

Examples and basic examples

The examples in this document are labelled as either "Example" or "Basic example". Basic examples are intended to document a procedure as it would be performed during a basic installation, with little or no modification.