2.8 PARAMETER SET PDF

A parameter set PDF defines a collection of parameters; there is no associated executable program or procedure. The general form of a parameter set PDF is:

          PARMSET  HELP=help-location
              variable declarations
          END-PROC

A parameter set PDF may be used to create parameter blocks on disk. For example, assuming GROUP1 is a parameter set PDF, consider the following sequence of TCL commands:

  1. TAE> TUTOR GROUP1

  2. In tutor mode, assign values to the parameters defined by the GROUP1 PDF.

  3. Execute the tutor SAVE command, creating a disk file for the GROUP1 parameters.

  4. Exit from tutor. (A "RUN" is also acceptable; TAE ignores an attempt to "execute" a parameter set PDF.)

Another way of creating a parameter file is entering parameter values directly through a command line as follows:

TAE> GROUP1 |SAVE=FILE| P1=V1 P2=V2 ... Pn=Vn

where FILE is an output file name,
P1, P2, ..., Pn are parameter names, and
V1, V2, ..., Vn are values of parameters.

A parameter file created for GROUP1 above may be accessed by an executing process using the p package (Section 3.9 in the "TAE Command Language (TCL) Runtime Services, Volume 1: C"), the XR package (Section 3.1 of the "TAE Command Language (TCL) Runtime Services, Volume 2: FORTRAN"), the Vm package in the "TAE Plus Programmer's Manual" and "TAE Plus C Reference Manual", the tae_vm package (Appendix C of the "TAE Plus Ada Reference Manual"), or the TaeVar class in the "TAE Plus C++ Reference Manual". This technique provides for disk-resident parameters whose values are available to all processes.

The parameter file may also be referenced using the RESTORE qualifier in command mode.

The parameter set PDF is the most suitable type of proc for declaring parameter qualifiers.

Another use of parameter set PDFs is to provide parameter definitions for dynamic tutor sessions. An executing process may use TAE subroutines (XQ/XR, p_, q_, or Vm_ routines) to request dynamic parameters; the set of parameters used for the dynamic session may be specified by the process to be the original set from the process PDF, a subset of the original set, or an entirely different set defined by a parameter set PDF.