HP TACL Programming Manual page 216

Glossary
Glossary–4
file system. A set of operating system procedures and data structures that provides for
communication between a process and a file, which can be a disk file, a device other
than a disk, or another process.
FILLER byte. A portion of a STRUCT that is used only to maintain the alignment of
adjacent STRUCT items.
frame. A local environment managed by the #FRAME, #UNFRAME, and #RESET
built-in functions.
fully qualified file name. The complete name of a file, including the node name. For
permanent disk files, this file name consists of a node name, volume name, subvolume
name, and file ID. For temporary disk files, the file name consists of a node name, a
subvolume name, and a temporary file ID. For a device, the file name consists of a
node name and a device name or logical device number. For a named process, the file
name consists of a node name, and a process name. For an unnamed process, the file
name consists of a node name, CPU number, PIN, and sequence number. Contrast
with partially qualified file name.
function. An operation or set of operations that is invoked by the appearance of the
function name and its arguments at the point where the result of the function is
wanted. A built-in function is hard coded into TACL; users can define other functions.
Variable types for functions include TEXT, MACRO, and ROUTINE.
GMT. See Greenwich mean time.
godmother. See job ancestor.
Greenwich mean time (GMT). The mean solar time for the meridian at Greenwich,
England.
Gregorian date. A date specified according to the common calendar using the month of
the year (January through December), the day of the month, and the year A.D.
home terminal. The terminal whose name is returned by a call to the MYTERM
procedure, or the name returned in the hometerm parameter of the
PROCESS_GETINFO_ procedure. The home terminal is often the terminal from which
the process or process's ancestor was started.
interprocess communication (IPC). The exchange of messages between processes in a
system or network.
interrupt. The mechanism by which a processor module is notified of an asynchronous
event that requires immediate processing.
invoke. A request to execute TACL code. To invoke a variable, (1) list its name (like an
implied RUN statement) without regard to results or (2) surround the variable name in
square brackets ([]) to replace the name with its expansion (text or macro variable) or
results (routine).
IPC. See interprocess communication.
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