OpenVMS Programming Concepts

This OpenVMS Programming Concepts Manual (December 1995) covers fundamental operating system features for system and application programmers. Key topics include:

• Process Creation: Types of processes, execution contexts, and kernel threads (Alpha only).
• Process Communication: Communication within and between processes, including mailboxes, common areas, and logical names.
• Process Control: Process information gathering, scheduling, and synchronization.
• Asynchronous System Traps (ASTs): Mechanisms for asynchronous event handling.
• System Time Operations: Time formats, conversions, and timer requests.
• Run-Time Library (RTL) Usage: Accessing OS components, I/O operations (simple and complex), and memory allocation.
• File Operations: File attributes, access strategies, mapping, and sequential file handling.
• Logical Name Services: Creating, translating, and managing logical names and tables.
• Condition Handling: The OpenVMS Condition Handling facility, exception dispatching, signaling, and condition handlers.
• Synchronizing Data Access: Memory read/modify/write operations, hardware-level synchronization, and lock management.
• Image Initialization: Mechanism for declaring and dispatching initialization routines.
• Shareable Resources: Sharing data and code using libraries, shareable images, and global sections.
• System Security Services: Protection schemes, identifier management, rights databases, and protected subsystems.
• Memory Management: Concepts for VAX and Alpha systems, including sections and page frame mapping.

The manual is specific to OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.0 and OpenVMS VAX Version 7.0.