BIF has come to be the generic term, but the same notion has been given different names in different statement-level procedural languages. COBOL, for example, calls them intrinsic functions.
The idea is an important one. None of us wants to use an SLPL in which such constructs as y = sqrt(x) ; or the like are not immediately available. The weasel C term 'library function' is for this reason unfortunate. It leaves open the question who must implement them. (BIF instead makes it clear than they must come with a compiler or interpeter.) --jg On 10/6/12, Scott Ford <scott_j_f...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Thanks John, haven't seen that ow before ... > > Scott ford > www.identityforge.com > > Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll > understand. - Chinese Proverb > > > On Oct 6, 2012, at 2:12 PM, "John P. Baker" <jba...@ngssallc.com> wrote: > >> Scott, >> >> BIF = "Built-in Function" >> >> John P. Baker >> President >> NGSSA, LLC >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On >> Behalf Of Scott Ford >> Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2012 2:09 PM >> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU >> Subject: Re: Is there a correspondence between 64-bit IBM mainframes and >> PoOps editions levels? >> >> Ok John, I will bite what's a BIF ? >> >> Scott ford >> www.identityforge.com >> >> Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll >> understand. - Chinese Proverb >> >> >> On Oct 6, 2012, at 8:49 AM, John Gilmore <jwgli...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Randy Hudson wrote: >>> >>> <begin extract> >>> I don't believe MVCIN was available on the 360/50; we used the TR >>> instruction to reverse fields, or otherwise re-arrange them. >>> <end extract> >>> >>> and he at once quite correct and utterly wrong. As usual, it depends >>> upon what "was available" is thought to mean. >>> >>> There is and has "always" been a list of non-standard mainframe >>> instructions that IBM can make available for a [small] fee. Some >>> shops use one or more of them, and others are unaware of them. >>> >>> MVCIN is an instruction that shops that do text processing in a >>> semitic language (or in Farsi, which, while Indo-european, is also >>> written from right to left in an almost but not quite standard version >>> of the Arabic alphabet) had an early felt need for. IBM met that >>> need, and MVCIN was available early in the Middle East, certainly by >>> 1971 when I first encountered it there. >>> >>> It was, for example, installed on the mainframes of the National >>> Iranian Oil Company (Naft Melli) in Tehran and Abadan in the early >>> 1970s; and I remember writing and installing a BIF that made it >>> available in PL/I there. >>> >>> John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA >>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send >>> email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send >> email >> to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
