HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
TRANSACT/XL and TRANSACT/V Enhancements
by Gary Peck
Santa Clara Software Division
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
TRANSACT has been enhanced to include several new language features and a
symbolic debugger, TRANDEBUG. The language features are implemented in
TRANSACT/XL version A.02.01 and in TRANSACT/V version A.07.00. The
symbolic debugger is implemented in TRANSACT/XL only. TRANSACT/XL
version A.02.00 implements the following enhancements: (TRANSACT/V
A.07.00 is included with the TRANSACT/XL product.)
* For TRANSACT/XL and TRANSACT/V:
Multi-dimensional arrays
Redirection of output from the DISPLAY statement
Selective deletion of entries in the MATCH and UPDATE registers
Access to more MPE intrinsics with the PROC statement
Cursor positioning within VPLUS forms
* For TRANSACT/XL:
TRANDEBUG: New symbolic debugging facility
Multi-dimensional Arrays
This feature allows definition of multi-dimensional arrays (up to 16
dimensions). Previous versions manipulated arrays with the LET(OFFSET)
statement. More recently, with the A.06.00 version of TRANSACT/V and
with TRANSACT/XL from its introduction, single dimension arrays were
implemented. (Refer to the V-Delta-3 Communicator.)
Redirect output from the DISPLAY statement
This feauture allows redirection of DISPLAY output to an MPE file defined
in the SYSTEM statement. This allows a program to easily produce
multiple reports by issuing DISPLAY statements to a file for each report
desired. Page counters and line counters will apply to the DISPLAYs that
are redirected to files.
Selective deletion of entries in the MATCH and UPDATE registers
This feature allows individual MATCH and UPDATE register entries to be
deleted. In previous versions you could only empty (reset) these
registers completely, and add back the desired entries.
Access to more MPE intrinsics from the PROC statement
This feature permits programmers to use DEFINE(INTRINSIC) and to execute
intrinsics with the PROC statement previously unavailable to TRANSACT/V:
ABORTESS: aborts the specified session
FINTEXIT: causes a return from the user's interrupt procedure
FPARSE: parses and validates file designators
GETINFO: gets INFO string and PARM value from the :RUN or the
CREATEPROCESS intrinsic
JOBINFO: returns job/session related information
STARTSESS: initiates a session on the specified terminal
Cursor positioning
The TRANSACT verbs GET(FORM), SET(FORM), PUT(FORM), and UPDATE(FORM) have
a new option, CURSOR=, to allow a program to position the cursor to a
specified field in a VPLUS form.
TRANDEBUG
The features of the debugging facility include the ability to:
1. Pause the execution of the program at specified TRANSACT
statements, when a data item's value has changed, or a register
has changed.
2. Display the contents of:
* Items
* TRANSACT registers
* Runtime options
* Call stack
* Perform stack
* VPLUS comarea formatted
3. Modify contents of TRANSACT registers, runtime options, and items.
4. Trace the execution path of a program.
5. View the source code of the program being debugged through a
source code window.
6. "Record" and "playback" TRANDEBUG commands.
7. Issue MPE XL CI commands from within the Debug Facility.
8. Invoke the MPE XL Native Mode Debug Facility, NMDEBUG.
9. Trace KSAM, TurboIMAGE, and MPE XL file system calls made by
TRANSACT/XL.
10. Utilize Single and multiple stepping through program statements.
11. Invoke HP EDIT (if installed).
12. Access online HELP.
For more detailed information, refer to the related article in the
"Technical Articles" section in this Communicator.