Language Environment Interface Reference

ENVIRONMENT Statement Syntax

An ENVIRONMENT statement has the following format:

ENVIRONMENT(type) library-name  ([specification parameter_list, ...)

Each ENVIRONMENT statement must be on a single line.

The following are the parameters you must specify for each language environment:

• type

  The name that associates this language environment with a FUNCTION block definition in a Net.Data macro. You must also specify the language environment type on a FUNCTION block definition to tell Net.Data which language environment processes the function call. See the "Function Block" section in Net.Data Reference for more information about the FUNCTION block.

  Important: The name cannot begin with the prefix DTW. This prefix is reserved for language environments shipped with Net.Data. If you use the DTW prefix, Net.Data cannot load your language environment DLL.

• library_name

  The name of the object containing the language environment interfaces that are called by Net.Data. The file extension is different for each operating system:

  • In AIX(R), the name of the shared library is specified with the .o extension.
  • In HP/UX, the name of the shared library is specified with the .sl extension
  • In OS/2(R) and Windows NT, the DLL name is specified with the .dll extension.
  • In OS/390(R), the DLL name is specified without the .dll extension.
  • In OS/400(R), the service program name is specified with the .SRVPGM extension.

    In SUN, SCO, and LINUX the name of the shared library is specified with the .so extension

  Look at the initialization file shipped with Net.Data for your operating system to see how to specify this name. Consider using a fully qualified path name to make sure Net.Data finds the DLL or shared library.

• specification

  The parameter passing specification that indicates whether Net.Data uses the parameter for input, output, or input and output. Possible values:

  IN

  An parameter used for input

  OUT

  A parameter used for output

  INOUT

  A parameter used for both input and output

• parameter_list

  The list of parameters that are passed to the language environment on each function call, in addition to those parameters specified in the FUNCTION block definition. They are passed in the parm_data_array field of the dtw_lei_t structure following the parameters specified in the FUNCTION block definition. You must define these parameters as variables in your Net.Data macro before the function call is made. If a function modifies the value of these parameters, the parameters retain the modified value once the function finishes processing.