Workbook for SLD Offline Users - EXPEDITE

The EXPEDITE command is used for compiling and linking code for the SLD Offline. It replaces old commands such PREPMORT, COMPILE, MAKESHR, SLDERROR and ACTION. To use it, type: EXPEDITE file_specification

If the file you specify is of the type PREPMORT, FORTRAN or C, EXPEDITE will do a compilation and then insert your routine into an appropriate code library (it will create a code library if none yet exists).
If the file you specify is of the type VEC, EXPEDITE will link the shareable.
If the file you specify is of the type ERR, EXPEDITE will compile the error file and insert new information into your copy of the signal database (it will create a personal version of the signal database if none yet exists).

Users who are already familiar with the old command, ACTION, may be interested to know that EXPEDITE is actually just a front end to this old command. A summary of differences between EXPEDITE and ACTION is given at the end of this discussion.

EXPEDITE Uses DUCS Sections

Every file that you EXPEDITE must be assigned to a DUCS section. If the file does not belong in any of the standard DUCS sections, you can assign it to a special section called USER which is reserved for personal use.

You can specify a DUCS section for your file by using the /SECTION qualifier in the EXPEDITE command:

   EXPEDITE/SECTION=DUCS_Section file_specification

If you do not provide the /SECTION qualifier, EXPEDITE will look to see if there is a DUCS section name specified in the header of the file.

If you do not provide the /SECTION qualifier and EXPEDITE cannot find one in the header section of the file, EXPEDITE will prompt you for one. Just hit return at this point to place the routine into the USER section.

Other Qualifiers for EXPEDITE

EXPEDITE accepts the additional qualifiers /NOOPTIMIZE and /JBOUNDS.

To turn off the optimizer during compilation,

   EXPEDITE/NOOPTIMIZE file_specification

This is useful for debugging. It keeps the optimizer from "optimizing-away" symbols that you man want to study in the debugger.

To make MORTRAN insert code to check the legality of references to JAZELLE data elements,

   EXPEDITE/JBOUNDS file-specification

This is useful when you suspect that bugs are resulting from "overwriting code," that is, from writing more data into a given Jazelle bank element than that element is designed to take. In the interests of speed, the compiler does not normally insert this kind of check.

Converting from PREPMORT, MAKESHR and ACTION to EXPEDITE

EXPEDITE behaves roughly like ACTION, but it manages to also replace MAKESHR. Any time that EXPEDITE puts code into the USER section, it automatically creates a file USERSHR.VEC that can later be used to create a USER shareable. You then create the user shareable the same as you would create any other shareable, by running EXPEDITE on the relevant .VEC file.

Thus the following set of commands:

   PREPMORT MYCODE1.PREPMORT
   PREPMORT MYCODE2.PREPMORT
   MAKESHR MYCODE1 MYCODE2

now becomes: EXPEDITE MYCODE1.PREPMORT EXPEDITE MYCODE2.PREPMORT EXPEDITE USERSHR.VEC And the following set of commands: COPY PRODKAL:KALSHR.VEC [ ] ACTION KAL KALTBND.PREPMORT ACTION KAL KALSHR.VEC now becomes: EXPEDITE KALTBND.PREPMORT EXPEDITE PRODKAL:KALSHR.VEC

Summary of Differences between EXPEDITE and ACTION

The ACTION command was never really written to be user-friendly. Instead, it was designed to be called automatically by the DUCS system as part of the procedure for installing new code at all DUCS sites.

EXPEDITE, and the PROJECT system as a whole, were designed to form a user-friendly wrapper around ACTION. Some of the differences between EXPEDITE and ACTION are as follows:

Whereas ACTION always requires that a DUCS section be specified, EXPEDITE is able to search the file header for this information.
Whereas ACTION attempts to extract help information from a routine's file header and build a help library, EXPEDITE skips these steps (they are needed for DUCS installation but not for individual use).
Whereas ACTION always copies source files to the test directory, even if they are already there, EXPEDITE skips this step.
Whereas ACTION does not accept the compiler options /NOOPTIMIZE and /JBOUNDS, EXPEDITE does accept them.
Whereas ACTION leaves the DCL help system in a bad state, EXPEDITE leaves the help system untouched.
Whereas ACTION deletes any previous code from the DUCS$WORK directory without giving any warning, EXPEDITE gives you a listing of all code found in the DUCS$WORK directory and will not proceed without explicit permission to delete this code.
Whereas ACTION sets DUCS TEST automatically, often wrongly, and does so without informing the user, EXPEDITE asks the user to set this important value.

Further benefits are obtained by running EXPEDITE within the overall context of the PROJECT system.

Back to Compile, Link and Run

Joseph Perl
12 March 1996