Next Previous Contents

3. Module Overview

The SLxpa api provides both high-level and low-level views on the underlying XPA library. At the high-level SLxpa seeks to mimic the three most commonly used XPA command line utilities: xpaset, xpaget, and xpaaccess. It is anticipated that the corresponding S-Lang functions will also be the most commonly used SLxpa features.

At the low-level SLxpa aims at mirroring the XPA api more closely. To that end, rather than replicate the XPA documentation here we simply note discrepancies between the respective apis and refer the reader to the XPA website.

Note that for brevity we use the terms XPA access point and XPA command, and likewise XPA server and target, interchangeably.

3.1 Versioning

SLxpa indicates version information in the variables 

        _xpa_module_version             An integer containing the value
                                        (10000*major_ver) + (100*minor_ver) + micro_ver

        _xpa_module_version_string      A string containing the value
                                        major_ver.minor_ver.micro_ver
Earlier releases of SLxpa used the variables _slxpa_version and _slxpa_version_string to convey this information, but these have been deprecated. As a user convenience SLxpa also indicates the version of XPA against which it was built, via the floating point variable 
        xpa_version

3.2 Omitted Arguments

If a function argument is omitted at invocation time, and a default value is given in the functions Usage statement, the underlying XPA C function will be invoked as if the default value were specified for the omitted argument. Note that, as is the case with, say, C++, in order to default the Nth argument each of arguments 1 through N-1 must be specified.

3.3 Error Checking

SLxpa introduces the slxpa_errno variable, which indicates the last error which occurred internal to the XPA module. The module zeros slxpa_errno at import time, and explicitly assigns only the following values 

        1               XPA_COULD_NOT_CONNECT
        2               XPA_SERVER_ERROR
        3               XPA_MALLOC_ERROR
during subsequent execution. As with the errno variable defined by C, it is the caller's responsibility to zero slxpa_errno when needed.

3.4 Contacting Multiple Servers

The XPA_MAXHOSTS environment variable, when set, signifies the upper limit for the number of application servers that any single SLxpa call will contact. By default this value is 5. Note that this variable is also utilized by the XPA library itself, as are others described in the XPA documentation.

3.5 Unimplemented Functions

Server

The XPA module supports only the client portion of the XPA library; no server functions have yet been wrapped.

Client

Several client functions have been omitted:

It is unclear if any applications have been written which provide info XPA access points. Although technically speaking SLxpa does provide a wrapper for XPASetFd, namely XPASetFromFile, at present it is only an empty stub.

Next Previous Contents