OpenVMS Programming Concepts Manual 2

This document, "HP OpenVMS Programming Concepts Manual, Volume II" (January 2005), serves as a technical reference for system and application programmers using the HP OpenVMS operating system (versions I64 8.2 and Alpha 8.2).

It comprehensively describes the programming features and interfaces of OpenVMS, including:

• Core Programming Concepts: System routine call formats, basic calling standard conventions (register/stack usage, argument passing), and run-time library routines.
• I/O and File Management: Detailed explanations of run-time library input/output operations, system service I/O, file attributes, access strategies, mapping, and Extended File Specifications (ODS-5, deep directories).
• System Services and Resources: How to call system services, manage quotas, privileges, security, system time operations, and access various operating system components via RTLs.
• Advanced Topics: Distributed Transaction Manager (DECdtm) interfaces (including XA), creating user-written privileged system services, logical name services, and image initialization.
• Supporting Information: Appendices detailing generic macros for system services, OpenVMS data types and their implementations across various high-level languages (Ada, APL, BASIC, BLISS, C/C++, COBOL, Fortran, Pascal, PL/I, RPG II, SCAN), and a glossary of authentication terminology.

The manual includes numerous programming examples and emphasizes architectural differences (VAX, Alpha, I64) where applicable.