DEC PL/I Version 4.0 is based on VAX PL/I Version 3.5. DEC PL/I Version 4.0 also includes support for IEEE floating-point data. Version 4.0A also contains the new features of Version 4.0.

14.1 Overview of Language Support

DEC PL/I Version 4.0 is primarily a VAX PL/I Version 3.5 compatibility release. The following sections contain information on support or lack of support for language elements.

14.2 DEBUG Support

DEC PL/I Version 4.0 does not contain full debug support for the following PL/I language data types:

• PL/I unaligned bit-string array variables with run-time sizes and PL/I parameter unaligned bit-string array variables with run-time sizes.
  The following sample program shows an unaligned bit-string array variable:

  p : procedure options (main); call p1 (5); end; p1 : procedure (size_ch); dcl (size_ch) fixed binary; dcl rtb1(size_ch) bit(5); dcl rtb2(size_ch,size_ch) bit(5); end;

  
  In addition, on OpenVMS AXP you cannot correctly examine or deposit to any PL/I unaligned bit-string array variable of unknown size.

• PL/I picture variable data type, as the following program fragment shows:

  declare p2 picture <picture-specification>;

• PL/I varying character variables with run-time sizes, as the following sample program shows:

  p : procedure options (main); call p1 (5); end; p1 : procedure (size_chv); dcl (size_chv) fixed binary; dcl strv1 character (size_chv) varying init('sksks'); strv1 = 'abcde'; end;

  
  In addition, on OpenVMS AXP if a string has run-time bounds the debugger examines and deposits to the variable as if it is a nonvarying string. The work around is to use the debug command "EXAMINE/ASCIW"

• Label array variables.
• Label constants.
• Entry variables and label variables.
• Structure parameter variables of unknown size, specifically PL/I structure parameters declared with star extents or members with unknown size, are not fully supported.
• PL/I external, controlled, defined, and based variables; for example, you cannot examine the externally declared PL/I based variable pli_based_nofp shown in the following sample program:

  dcl pli_globaldef fixed binary(31) globaldef; dcl pli_based_nofp fixed binary(31) based(addr(pli_globaldef)); p : procedure options (main); end;

• Differences in behavior between VAX PL/I and DEC PL/I that involve unreferenced static variables, unreferenced globaldef variables, unreferenced internal static variables, and unreferenced automatic variables.
• Referenced PL/I %REPLACE floating-point constants.
• PL/I REFER structures across all data types.
• Depositing to PL/I bit-string variables using the B format:

  DBG> DEPOSIT BIT = '111'B

  
  The workaround is to deposit without using the B, (i.e. DEPOSIT BIT = '111')

• Referenced PL/I structures declared as globalref. No debugger information is output for the structure members.
• Position attribute for PL/I bit-string variables.

DEC PL/I Version 4.0 supports five floating-point data types: F, D, G, IEEE S, and IEEE T float. VAX PL/I supports four floating-point data types: F, D, G and H. When you declare a float binary object with a precision greater than 53 (which requires the H floating-point data type), the DEC PL/I compiler supplies a precision of 53 (the maximum value of the G floating-point data type). When you declare a float decimal object with a precision greater than 15 (which requires the H floating-point data type) the DEC PL/I compiler supplies a precision of 15 (the maximum value of the G floating-point data type).

• DEC PL/I may produce truncated results when higher precision values are specified.
  The following PL/I program shows the output from DEC PL/I when precision values exceeding the limits are specified:

  p : procedure options (main); dcl h float binary (113); dcl d float decimal (34); end;

  
  The output received from the DEC PL/I compiler for this program is as follows:

  declare d float decimal (34); ........^ %PLIG-W-FLTDPREC, The precision specified for "D" exceeds the implementation's limit of FLOAT DECIMAL(15). The maximum precision of 15 has been supplied. at line number 3 in file tdisk:[tdir]t.pli;1 declare h float binary (113); ........^ %PLIG-W-FLTBPREC, The precision specified for "H" exceeds the implementation's limit of FLOAT BINARY(53). The maximum precision of 53 has been supplied. at line number 2 in file tdisk:[tdir]t.pli;1 %PLIG-I-SUMMARY, Completed with 0 errors, 2 warnings, and 0 informational messages.

  
  

• Before VAX PL/I Version 3.5, certain G and H floating values could improperly be truncated when they were converted to either a fixed-decimal or pictured datatype.
  Even when the PLI command line does not include the /G_FLOAT qualifier and the program does not include floating-point variables large enough to require H float, the VAX PL/I Version 3.5 compiler can generate code that uses H floating data when intermediate calculations require higher precision in order to produce correct results.
  OpenVMS AXP PL/I Version 4.0A does not support a floating-point data type with a precision higher than 53, the maximum value of the G floating-point data type. Therefore, certain conversion operations performed by DEC PL/I may produce results that are truncated in comparison to the results produced by VAX PL/I.

In DEC PL/I Version 4.0A, the format of the ONARGSLIST built-in function is identical to that of VAX PL/I. However, the data structure pointed to by the mechanism array pointer is different.

15 Overview of Changes from VAX PL/I

In addition to the new features outlined above, DEC PL/I Version 4.0 contains the following changes from the VAX PL/I Version 3.5 product.

• Changes to correct VAX PL/I Version 3.5 errors
  A secondary objective of this release is correction of VAX PL/I Version 3.5 errors. A number of problems with Version 3.5 have been corrected. Some of these were documented in the Version 3.5 release notes, while others were discovered after the release of Version 3.5.
• Changes in virtual memory requirements
  The virtual memory requirements for DEC PL/I may be extensive depending to the type of PL/I language constructs that you use. Processing the PUT and GET statements, BEGIN blocks and PROCEDURE blocks with the DEC PL/I compiler tend to require more virtual memory than the same operation would if you were using the VAX PL/I compiler.
  Heavy usage of these constructs in your programs may exhaust your user limits for virtual memory. The typical compiler errors that you receive are:

  %PLIG-F-TEXT, Compiler abort - virtual memory limits exceeded. %SYSTEM-F-ABORT, abort %LIB-F-INSVIRMEM, insufficient virtual memory

  
  You can recover by increasing your user page-file quota (PGFLQUOTA). See the Kednos PL/I for OpenVMS Alpha Installation Guide or the OpenVMS System Manager's Manual for more information on increasing your user page-file quota.

• Changes in behavior for calls to bound procedures
  With VAX PL/I, nested procedures can be called by other routines using the PL/I language's entry variable. However, in order to successfully reach these bound-procedure routines and ensure proper execution of uplevel-referenced variables within the bound procedures, the user must keep the parent invocation of the bound procedure active.
  This assures that the stack references to uplevel variables within the bound procedure to the parent's stack, which contained the uplevel-referenced variables, are still valid.
  With DEC PL/I the same situation still exists; however, you may experience different behavior between VAX PL/I and DEC PL/I if you do not keep the parent invocation active. This is due to the fact that bound procedures are not created in the same way by the two compilers.
  DEC PL/I creates the bound procedure values on the stack of the parent of the bound procedure. The user program may produce an access violation or may exhibit other undefined behavior when the parent invocation of the bound procedure is not kept active. Because the stack of the parent has been destroyed, the bound procedure code found on the parent stack may also have been destroyed or corrupted, and the user may not be able to reach the bound procedure.
  With VAX PL/I you may receive the same undefined behavior. Cases may exist in which you are able to reach the bound procedure; however, you may still receive errors in results from the uplevel-referenced variables within the bound procedure. This is because the bound procedure code on the parents stack may have been corrupted.
  The following example shows behavior where the bound procedure entry6a cannot be reached by DEC PL/I, because the parent procedure, entry6, has exited and its stack is free to be recovered and used by other procedures. Therefore, the bound procedure code has been destroyed.
  Note that this programs also fails with VAX PL/I. However, it fails after having reached the bound procedure entry6a and while trying to access the uplevel-referenced variables from the parent, entry6.

  Example of Bound Procedure Failure Behavior If Parent Bound Procedure is Inactive
  

  program: proc options(main); program: proc options(main); dcl (ent2) entry variable; dcl fnc entry returns(entry) variable; dcl evar char (25) var init(' '); fnc=entry6; ent2=fnc(); call destroy_stack(); call ent2; put skip list('Evar is =>',evar); entry6: proc returns (entry); return(entry6a); entry6a: proc; evar=evar||'entry6a*'; return; end entry6a; end entry6; destroy_stack: proc; /* Declare enough space to destroy previous * stack values before this call. */ dcl temp_space char(1000); temp_space = 'hello'; end; end program;

• Changes in behavior for overlapping static storage initialization
  In VAX PL/I and DEC PL/I, overlapping initialization of static storage is not supported. When VAX PL/I finds an overlapping static initialization, the compiler uses the value of the last found initialization as the value for the static variable.
  In DEC PL/I you cannot depend on the value of the last found initialization being assigned to the static variable. This behavior may cause a change in behavior for PL/I external variable initializations.
  If a PL/I external variable is declared with the attributes EXTERNAL STATIC INITIAL, all blocks that declare the variable MUST be initialized with the same value.
  Because VAX PL/I allowed overlapping static storage initialization, you could specify different initial values for the SAME external variable within containing blocks. The last initial value encountered by the VAX PL/I compiler was the value of the external variable.
  In DEC PL/I this rule is more strictly enforced: if the user specifies an initial value in the declaration of a PL/I external variable, the same initial value declaration must be specified at each occurrence of the declaration of the external variable in all blocks that declare the external variable. Failure to do so can cause unpredictable results. The following examples illustrate correct and incorrect declarations:

  Correct Declaration of an External Variable Initialization
  

  program: proc options(main); dcl test fixed external initial(5); p:proc; dcl test external initial(5); /* The value of this variable should be 5. */ put skip list ('The value of test is =>',test); end; end;

  Incorrect Declaration of an External Variable Initialization
  

  program: proc options(main); /* The initialization MUST be the same * for all declarations of the external * variable. */ dcl test fixed external initial(5); dcl test1 fixed external initial(5); dcl test2 fixed external; p:proc; /* The initialization MUST be the same * for all declarations of the external * variable. */ dcl test external initial(6); dcl test1 external; dcl test2 external initial(6); /* The value of these variables is unpredictable. */ put skip list ('The value of test is =>',test); put skip list ('The value of test1 is =>',test1); put skip list ('The value of test2 is =>',test2); end; end;

  Note As no guarantee exists as to which occurrence of the external variable the DEC PL/I compiler processes first, each occurrence of the variable must contain the same initial value.

• Changes in behavior for the SUBSTR built-in function
  In PL/I, the SUBSTR function is defined only when the position attribute (the integer expression that indicates the position of the first bit or character in the substring) is greater than or equal to 1.
  If the position attribute is less than 1 (that is, the SUBSTR BIF is undefined), you may observe different results with DEC PL/I than with VAX PL/I.
• Changes in underflow detection behavior for DEC PL/I
  The VAX PL/I compiler outputs underflow detection code, whereas the DEC PL/I compiler does not.
• Changes for null statements and label behavior in DEC PL/I
  VAX PL/I does not compare the multiple labels of many succeeding combinations of labels and null statements so that they have the same address. However, DEC PL/I optimizes these label-null statement sequences and compares the multiple labels so that they result in the same address. The following example illustrates this difference:

  X67: PROC options(main); A:; /* Null statement. */ B:; /* Null statement. */ C:; /* Null statement. */ IF A=C THEN PUT LIST('NULL STATEMENT LABELS COMPARE EQUAL FOR DEC PL/I'); ELSE PUT LIST('NULL STATEMENT LABELS COMPARE NOT EQUAL FOR VAX PL/I'); D: IF C=D THEN PUT LIST('ERROR THESE LABELS SHOULD NEVER COMPARE EQUAL'); END;

• In DEC PL/I you can continue when a GOTO statement with the OTHERWISE option is used to go to an undefined label array element within a BEGIN-END block. VAX PL/I does not support this function. The following example works with DEC PL/I but not VAX PL/I:

  program: procedure options(main); dcl i fixed binary(31,0); begin; i = 2; goto part(i) otherwise; put skip list('At continue !!'); end; part(1): end program;

• Run-time exception handling is more consistent when processing formats of GET EDITs and PUT EDITs in DEC PL/I than it is in VAX PL/I. If DEC PL/I encounters an exception when processing a format such as PLI$_INVFMTPARM, a signal is raised. If the exception is handled, then processing continues with the next format item regardless of the nature of the signal and the format item that was being processed when the exception was detected. This is not always the case with VAX PL/I.
  This holds true for conversion errors as well. With VAX PL/I, some conversions with GET EDIT would raise the CONVERSION condition while others would raise the ERROR condition (with ONCODE()=PLI$_CNVERR). DEC PL/I uniformly raises CONVERSION when data cannot be converted. The following example demonstrates this difference.

  cnverr: proc options (main); %include $plidef; declare srcstring character(10) initial('4 4445'), temp fixed bin(31); on error begin; if oncode() = pli$_cnverr then put skip list('VAX PL/I detects CNVERR (not restartable)'); if oncode() = pli$_oncnvpos then put skip list('DEC PL/I detects ONCNVPOS (restartable)'); goto done; end; get string (srcstring) edit (temp) (b3(6)); done: end cnverr;

• Nonlocal returns work properly under DEC PL/I. A nonlocal return is a RETURN statement that is lexically nested between any number of BEGIN/END pairs; for example:

  nested_proc : proc returns (fixed); begin; begin; begin; begin; begin; return (5); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 1'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 2'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 3'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 4'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 5'); end; nested_proc2 : proc returns (float); begin; begin; begin; begin; begin; return (5.1); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 1'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 2'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 3'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 4'); end; put skip list ('shouldnt be here 5'); end; program: proc options(main); dcl result1 fixed; dcl result2 float; result1 = nested_proc(); result2 = nested_proc2(); put skip list (result1); put skip list (result2); end;

  
  Two special considerations should be observed for nonlocal returns from OPTIONS(MAIN) procedures. First, an ON unit declared in the scope of one of the BEGIN/END pairs for FINISH is given a chance to execute. Second, an ON unit declared in the scope of one of the BEGIN/END pairs for VAXCONDITION(SS$_UNWIND) is NOT be given a chance to execute with the above construct.

• When a main program (for example, pname : procedure(options(main))) terminates abnormally due to an unhandled exception, DEC PL/I closes all open files before turning control over to the OpenVMS last-chance condition handler (the utility that prints the error and traceback).
  This means that I/O that was being held in a buffer is allowed to reach its destination before the error dump appears on the screen. This is not the case with VAX PL/I, in which I/O held in a buffer is not allowed to reach its destination before the error dump appears on the screen.
• Differences in exception handling between OpenVMS AXP and OpenVMS VAX
  Since machine instructions on Alpha AXP(tm) differ from those of the VAX, any exception handler written to handle VAX hardware exceptions should be examined to ensure that it handles Alpha AXP hardware exceptions similarly. For example, consider a case in which an exception handler has been written to handle an access violation. You may expect different behavior upon normal completion of the handler. In this case the handler should always perform a nonlocal GOTO to exit the handler so that program execution continues in a predictable way.
  Note also that exceptions on the Alpha AXP hardware are imprecise and therefore are not always restartable. Digital recommends using a non-local goto to achieve consistent behavior across both PL/I platforms.
• Fixed-decimal precision differences between DEC PL/I and VAX PL/I
  The precision specified for a PL/I fixed-decimal data type must be in the range of 1 to 31 for DEC PL/I. VAX PL/I allows a fixed-point decimal variable to be declared with a precision of zero and also allows built-in functions to specify a fixed-decimal precision of zero. DEC PL/I does not allow zero to be used in either of these situations and issues an error "FIXDPRECZERO" when the precision specified for a fixed decimal is zero.
• Differences in behavior between OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS AXP architectures regarding PL/I overflow conditions
  In general, any PL/I operation that overflows on OpenVMS VAX also overflows on OpenVMS AXP. Since the Alpha AXP hardware does not include support for packed decimal instructions that correspond to the PL/I FIXED DECIMAL datatype, data items of this type are handled on OpenVMS AXP by run-time calls, to either the DEC PL/I Run-Time Library routines or system Object Time System (OTS) routines. These emulation routines perform many operations to compute the result of a FIXED DECIMAL operation, which in most cases can be done with a single VAX instruction. Many emulation operations generate an overflow.
  Therefore, DEC PL/I guarantees at least one overflow on OpenVMS AXP for every overflow on OpenVMS VAX per PL/I statement. DEC PL/I cannot guarantee that the resulting behavior or value produced by a PL/I statement that produces an overflow condition is the same value or behavior as it is on VAX PL/I.
  The following example illustrates a difference in overflow detection between VAX PL/I and DEC PL/I:

  23 1 fixb30 = fixd21; 0125 mulp #10,PLI$B_PAC_2_POWER_30,#31,-60(fp),#31,-96(fp) 0132 ashp #-21,#31,-96(fp),#0,#31,-112(fp) 013C cvtpl #31,-112(fp),r4 0141 movl r4,-80(fp)

  
  The difference occurs when a PL/I fixed decimal data item with a precision of 31 and a scale factor of 21 [FIXED DECIMAL(31,21)] is converted to a PL/I fixed binary data item with a precision 31 and a scale factor of 30 [FIXED BINARY(31,30)]. On OpenVMS VAX this overflow situation results in two overflow conditions being raised. On OpenVMS AXP this situation results in one overflow condition being raised.
  Note that all VAX PL/I cases of overflow are detected on OpenVMS AXP in the program. In the example, DEC PL/I detects one overflow for the two overflows reported by VAX PL/I. This difference is due to a difference in the instruction set between and AXP.
  The example illustrates two occurrences of this situation. In each case the fixed decimal item is converted to fixed binary item by a series of three steps, as follows:

  1. Multiplies the fixed decimal(31,21) item by the decimal representation of 2**30.
  2. Shifts the fixed decimal (31,51) created by step 1 to the right by 21.
  3. Converts the fixed decimal (31,30) created by step 2 to a fixed binary item (31,30).
  
  The OpenVMS VAX macro instructions output by VAX PL/I to perform this conversion are as follows:

  23 1 fixb30 = fixd21; 0125 mulp #10,PLI$B_PAC_2_POWER_30,#31,-60(fp),#31,-96(fp) 0132 ashp #-21,#31,-96(fp),#0,#31,-112(fp) 013C cvtpl #31,-112(fp),r4 0141 movl r4,-80(fp)

  
  In example, during the execution of the OpenVMS VAX mulp instruction, and during the OpenVMS VAX cvtpl instruction, overflows occur. The OpenVMS AXP instruction set does not contain decimal instructions. Therefore, OpenVMS VAX emulates decimal instructions by means of a series of OpenVMS AXP instructions and OTS calls. During the instructions to emulate the OpenVMS VAX mulp instruction, an overflow is correctly detected. During the instructions to convert packed-decimal data to integer data, an overflow is not detected.
  Note that after a fixed-overflow condition has been raised, the value resulting from an operation that causes this condition is undefined. In this case the value from the result of the multiplication that caused the overflow is undefined. When it is used in an expression, no guarantee exists that an overflow will be raised again. This happens when the result of the overflow is shifted to the right and then converted from decimal to integer. In this case it is reasonable to expect a difference in the number of overflows detected from one PL/I statement.
  Due to the difference between OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS AXP instructions, this situation cannot be prevented.
  In general, on a per-statement basis DEC PL/I detects overflow, but the number of overflows it detects per statement is not guaranteed to be the same on OpenVMS VAX and OpenVMS AXP. The following complete example illustrates the difference:

  program: procedure options(main); dcl fixb30 fixed bin(31,30); dcl fixd18 fixed decimal(31,18); dcl fixd21 fixed decimal(31,21); dcl fixd22 fixed decimal(31,22); dcl fixd24 fixed decimal(31,24); on fixedoverflow begin; put skip list('fixed overflow occurred'); end; fixd18 = 18.36; fixd22 = 22.40; fixd21 = fixd18+fixd22; fixb30 = fixd21; fixd18 = 18.42; fixd24 = 24.58; fixd21 = fixd24+fixd18; fixb30 = fixd21; end;