Where Did My C Language Support Application Programming Guide Go?
by Al Brajnikoff - IBM TPF Information Development

It's hard for us to take away something that's sitting in your bookshelf, but with PUT 2 we tried. Some people noticed this and pointedly wondered what we were doing.

Ever since IBM introduced C language support as a feature in TPF2.4 there has been a separate Application Programming Guide just for C. It had much of the same material as the assembler Application Programming Guide but used C terminology instead. There was also unique C information in it. They were separate, by the way, because C language was a feature. This reason went away with TPF3.1.

For TPF4.1 PUT 2 we merged the assembler and C Application Programming Guides. We also merged some introductory chapters (1 through 5) from the TPF C Language Support User's Guide.

Consolidating the Application Programming guides involved putting together several chapters that had similar content. To do this we used the fact that, for the most part, the assembler and C names in the text only differed by one being uppercase and the other being lowercase. This made things easier.

A feature of the application Programming guides was a long explanation (in either C or assembler terminology) about how a pair of segments interacted. The more we looked at the explanations and flow charts for the segments, the more dissatisfied we got with them. We wrote different example segments, added pseudo code for them, and clarified the explanations. These segments explain things from a common C and assembler perspective, making the appropriate detours when C and assembler differ on some point. The specifics of application interaction with the system and the fine points of the application programming interface for C and assembler are described together. The new material (from the point of view of the "old" guides) is the discussion of C language that moved from the C Language Support User's Guide (commonly referred to as the C User's Guide). This discussion was supplemented with additional facts on ISO-C and TPE The operation details needed fur using C' are also described. The C compiler parameters that TPF programs need are described along with the pre-linker, locales, and the library interface and build tools. The details of building a library and link-editing the stubs are illustrated with sample JCL.

Now that the general material has been taken out of the C User's Guide, what's left? We think the C User's Guide is a reference manual for all the TPF C functions. The C User's Guide and the Macro manuals are complimentary and we try hard to keep them in sync. The C User's Guide still has the reference information you expect.

The "new" TPF Application Programming guide contains all the information on the relationship between applications (whether C or assembler) and the system. the application programming interlace, general explanations of ISO-C for TPF, as well as hints on application design and testing, and the TPF C operational details.

Oh yeah... that old C Language Support Application Programming Guide. You might be seeing parts of it again, because we only use recycled paper now.