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Conference azur::mcc

Title:DECmcc user notes file. Does not replace IPMT.
Notice:Use IPMT for problems. Newsletter location in note 6187
Moderator:TAEC::BEROUD
Created:Mon Aug 21 1989
Last Modified:Wed Jun 04 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:6497
Total number of notes:27359

1409.0. "mcc_b_dtype field still used?" by TENERE::SILVA (Carl Silva - Telecom Eng - DTN 828-5339) Wed Aug 28 1991 10:58

	Is the mcc_b_dtype field of the MCC_T_Descriptor used?

	Carl
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1409.1TOOK::SWISTJim Swist LKG2-2/T2 DTN 226-7102Wed Aug 28 1991 11:372
    Not to my knowledge.
    
1409.2not now, but yesTOOK::KOHLSRuth KohlsWed Sep 04 1991 14:117
>	Is the mcc_b_dtype field of the MCC_T_Descriptor used?
 
Not currently, but I am planning to use it to distinguish between the
different hardware forms of real numbers for ILV and ASN.1 purposes, and 
once that is done there will be other, similar, uses developed for it. 

Ruth K.
1409.3the next best thing...TENERE::SILVACarl Silva - Telecom Eng - DTN 828-5339Fri Sep 06 1991 08:0012
	RE: .2,

>>	Is the mcc_b_dtype field of the MCC_T_Descriptor used?
> 
>Not currently, but I am planning to use it to distinguish between the
>different hardware forms of real numbers for ILV and ASN.1 purposes, and 
>once that is done there will be other, similar, uses developed for it. 

	SO then the nbest thing to do is to use it now for future
compatibility?

	Carl
1409.4TOOK::SWISTJim Swist LKG2-2/T2 DTN 226-7102Fri Sep 06 1991 11:249
    That is unclear.   The real function of this field is to represent
    the operating system's view of the datatype (a superset of the
    hardware's view of the datatype).  On VMS, this matters
    if and only if you pass the descriptor to an RTL routine like
    lib$cvt_dxdx which needs to know the VMS datatype.  On Ultrix, there's
    no concept of descriptor-based data and hence the MCC descriptor means
    nothing to the OS, but there are cases as Ruth mentioned where MCC
    internally needs to know the hardware datatype, so it seems like 
    a consistent use of the field.
1409.5I doTOOK::KOHLSRuth KohlsMon Sep 09 1991 13:3111
>	SO then the nbest thing to do is to use it now for future
>compatibility?

	It can't hurt.  You can set it to DSC_K_DTYPE_Z (any) or
DSC_K_DTYPE_T (string, to match the declaration of a descriptor's pointer) on
mcc descriptor initialization, and alter it to fit specific cases
when necessary.  Some of the necessary cases were pointed out by Jim--
VMS library routine calls.  Another example is floating point arithmetic on VMS.

Ruth