Preface

The Data Types Conversion Programmer's Manual is intended for MPE XL programmers who are experienced in one or more high-level programming languages. The purpose of the manual is to help the programmer who needs to receive and pass data across languages or programming environments.

This guide is part of the Programmer Series. Other manuals in the series are depicted in the documentation map at the front of the manual. The manuals for specific programming languages may be useful as well; the most common are listed below:

HP Business BASIC/XL Reference Manual (32715-90001).
HP C Programmer's Guide (92434-90002), HP C Reference Manual (92434-90001), HP C/XL Reference Manual Supplement (31506-90001), and HP C/XL Library Reference Manual Supplement (30026-90001).
HP COBOL II/XL Programmer's Guide (31500-90002) and COBOL II Reference Manual (31500-90001) and COBOL II/XL Reference Manual Supplement (31500-90005).
HP FORTRAN 77/XL Reference Manual (31501-90010) and HP FORTRAN 77/XL Programmer's Guide (31501-90011).
HP Pascal Reference Manual (31502-90001) and HP Pascal Programmer's Guide (31502-90002).
HP RPG/XL Programmer's Guide (30318-90001) and HP RPG Reference Manual (30318-90003).
Compiler Library/XL Reference Manual (32650-90029) may also be useful.

Chapter 1,: Introduction, gives an overview of the manual and of the topic of data types, their format, storage, and conversion. It explains what primitive data types are recognized by MPE XL and its subsystems, why data conversion may be necessary, and the differences in data representation between the Native Mode and Compatability Mode programming environments in MPE XL.
Chapter 2,: Formatting Data Types, presents the formats of the various data types supported on MPE XL and its subsystems. Bit formats are pictured, field boundaries given, and formatting conventions explained. A table compares the correspondence of primitive data types across system intrinsics and programming languages.
Chapter 3,: Converting Data Types, takes each of the primitive data types, one by one, and gives some suggestions for converting to each of the other data types.
Appendix A,: ASCII and EBCDIC Code Values, shows the character code values with their decimal, octal, and hexadecimal equivalents.

It would be most useful to skim the entire manual once, then look up specific topics as needed. The Table of Figures lists the various bit format maps. Look at the Table of Contents, Table of Tables, and index for other specific topics.

Preface

Technical documentation

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