HP Data Entry and Forms Management System (VPLUS) Reference Manual (32209-90024)
626 AppendixJ
HP PRECISION ARCHITECTURE
HPPA INTRINSICS
HPPA INTRINSICS
Introduction
On the MPE/V and previous systems, Hewlett Packard represented real or floating point
numbers in a format unique to each machine. However, on the MPE/XL systems, these
numbers are represented in a format that conforms with an IEEE standard. This means
that programs running in native mode on MPE/XL systems will deal with numbers stored
in the IEEE format. VPLUS will be running in compatibility mode, however, and will thus
deal with numbers stored in the MPE/V format.
Currently, VPLUS offers intrinsics that will accept a real number n the MPE/V format,
convert it to its equivalent external representation and put it into a form's data buffer. The
four HPPA intrinsics described below have been developed to allow programs running in
native mode to perform the same operations on a number stored in the IEEE format.
NOTE
Use these intrinsics only if you are programming entirely in native mode. If
you are accessing a database in compatibility mode, you must use the VPLUS
intrinsics, VGET/PUTtype.
VGETIEEEREAL
Copies character coded data contents from data buffer into an application, converting
numeric value to IEEE floating point format.
Syntax
VGETIEEEREAL {
comarea,fieldnum,variable
}
Parameters
comarea
Must be the
comarea
name specified when the forms file was
opened with VOPENFORMF. If not already set, the following
comarea
items
must be set before calling VGETIEEEREAL:
cstatus
Set to zero.
comarealen
Set to total number of two-byte words in
comarea
.
VGETIEEEREAL may set the following
comarea
items:
cstatus
Set to nonzero value if call is unsuccessful or if requested
field has an error.
fieldnum
Two byte integer variable containing the number assigned to the field by
FORMSPEC. The field itself may not be longer than 80 characters.
variable
Variable within application, of type IEEE floating point real (32 bits), into
which converted value is placed.
For Example:
VGETIEEEREAL(COMAREA,FIELDNUM,VARIABLE);
Discussion The content of the field denoted by the field number is read from the data
buffer. This content must be numeric but its data type need not be; numbers in a field of