OpenVMS RTL General Purpose (OTS$) Manual

This document is the OpenVMS RTL General Purpose (OTS$) Manual, published in April 2001 for OpenVMS Alpha and VAX Version 7.3.

It serves as a reference for system and application programmers who use the OTS$ facility within the OpenVMS Run-Time Library. The manual documents a collection of general-purpose routines that were originally designed to support language compilers but are now language-independent.

Key functions covered by the OTS$ routines include:

• Data type conversions (e.g., converting floating-point values to character strings, integers to various text representations like binary, decimal, octal, hexadecimal, and logical, and vice-versa).
• Complex and packed decimal arithmetic (division and multiplication).
• Data movement operations (with or without fill).
• Exponentiation for various base and exponent types (complex, D-floating, F-floating, G-floating, H-floating, word integer, longword integer, and unsigned longword).
• String manipulation routines (copying source strings by descriptor or reference, and allocating/deallocating dynamic string areas).

The manual also provides important information on linking OTS$ routines on an Alpha system, including details on 64-bit addressing support and compatibility with equivalent math$ entry points. The document is structured into an overview section and a detailed alphabetical reference section for each routine.