portability
The standard function library is a collection of popular functions. The standard function
library is available on every implementation and its functions behave identically.
recent additions
New functions are added to the standard library on an irregular basis. The standard
library you have may be ahead of this documentation.
return type and arguments
To review the functions in your standard library, select Help StandardLibrary
in the main window pulldown menu to display xst.DEC in the InstantHelp window. This
is the most reliable and up to date information on standard library functions, because
it's the current standard library prolog.
pass by reference = @variable
Many arguments in the function table have a @ pass by reference prefix. These arguments
fall into one or more of these catagories:
The language requires this argument be passed by reference (arrays).
The value is modified intentionally by the function to return a value.
The string value is not changed and pass by reference is faster.
Numeric arguments with the pass by reference prefix return a value. Programs that don't
need a particular numeric argument return value can pass that argument by value to
increase speed.
Array and string arguments are not modified unless such modification is a purpose of the
function. For example, in XstCopyArray (@ array$[] , @ copy$[] ) , array$[] is not
modified, but copy$[] is.
Unless otherwise stated, functions return non-zero to indicate error.
composite types and constants
Several data types and constants defined in the standard library to support the standard
library functions. For example, FILEINFO is a data type that supports
XstGetFilesAndAttributes() .
A large number of constants are defined by the standard library, not only for standard
library functions, but for intrinsic functions too. Almost all programs import the
standard library with IMPORT "xst".
Some of the constants defined in the standard library are: file modes for OPEN(), drive types, file attributes, find modes, sort
modes, data types returned by TYPE(), error and
exception numbers, etc.