On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, Daniel Levite wrote:

> how do I put the C program into an XL that can then be called from
> COBOL?
>
> i have successfully compiled the C program using GCC.  is it possible to
> place these kind of routines into callable XL routines?

Hi Daniel:

 Here are some general guidelines I use when creating XL routines.

 - There should be no main() function, it should be named to whatever you
expect to call from COBOL or other external language.
 - Be careful of which parms are passed by value and which by reference.
I write XL routines to work with Speedware and they need to accept
variables passed by reference.  I'm not a COBOL programmer but I think
you can go either way with COBOL.
 - Compile your C code into a object module then use LINKEDIT to
create/maintain the XL.  I use a batch job to compile my code and rebuild
the XL... it follows....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
!job compile,altonj.dev;inpri=12;outclass=prt143,1
!ccxl ltcs, ltco, $NULL;info="+Aa -D_SOCKET_SOURCE -D_POSIX_SOURCE"
!linkedit
purgexl ;xl=testxl;module=ltcs
addxl from=ltco;to=testxl;rl=^stdrl;merge;share
cleanxl testxl
edit
!tell altonj.dev LanTrans Client compile finished.
!eoj
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 And the back-referenced stdrl contents are...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
socketrl.net.sys
libc.lib.sys
licrandb.lib.sys
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The example above is some C code to make socket calls to an OS/2 server
to perform credit card authorizations (yes, it's encrypted).

 I did the initial development as a stand alone C application/executable.
When it came time to make it an XL I renamed the main() function to
lt_auth(...), build the XL as above... and have Speedware call lt_auth to
perform the card authorization.

 I hope that's helpful... YMMV.

Jim
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James R. Alton                        phone: (905) 575-2281
Systems Analyst                         Fax: (905) 575-2302
Mohawk College                       mailto:[log in to unmask]
Hamilton, Ontario  Canada