DECnet-Plus

This document, "DECnet-Plus OSAK Programming Reference," provides a comprehensive reference guide for the OSI Applications Kernel (OSAK) and ROSE application programming interfaces.

Key areas covered include:

• OSAK Routines: Detailed descriptions of functions used to manage OSI associations, including establishing, aborting, releasing, and synchronizing connections, as well as handling data transfer and activity management. It covers parameters, data types, and return values for each routine.
• OSAK Events: Explanations of the various events an application entity might receive, such as association indications, confirmations, and reports of errors or disruptions.
• ROSE Routines: Specific routines for Remote Operations Service Element (ROSE), covering encoding and decoding of ROSE Protocol Control Information (PCI) for operations, results, and errors.
• Trace Emitter Routines: Functions for enabling and managing the OSAK trace utility to record protocol traffic for debugging and analysis.
• Status Codes: A categorized list of success, informational, and error status codes returned by OSAK routines, with explanations for each.
• Disruptive Events: Information on how the OSAK interface handles events that can disrupt an association and the actions applications should take.
• Parameter Passing Mechanisms: A table detailing how each parameter in the OSAK parameter block is passed (by value or by reference).
• ISO Standards Implementation: How the OSAK interface conforms to and restricts various ISO protocol definitions for Open Systems Interconnection.
• Data Type Values: Lists of possible constant values for various OSAK data types, such as abort reasons, action results, and synchronization types.
• OSAKserver (OpenVMS Systems Only): A dedicated appendix describing OSAKserver's role in handling inbound connections, managing addresses, and interacting with NCL on OpenVMS systems.

The manual is intended for OSI application programmers with a basic understanding of upper-layer standards, assuming familiarity with DECnet-Plus installation and OSAK programming concepts.