gtpa2m1sApplication Programming

Understanding TPF Collection Support

TPF collection support (TPFCS) is a service for managing the storage and retrieval of data on a TPF database. The data is stored in units known as collections. Collections are abstract representations of data having common attributes and functions. Persistent collections maintain their state after the entry control block (ECB) that creates them exits.

TPFCS can be considered an application development tool that integrates database functionality with the application. Potentially complicated data manipulation routines are not needed in application programs because their functionality is already included in the TPF 4.1 system. Furthermore, the TPF 4.1 system does not need to have any knowledge of the format of the data, so more control is given to the application and taken away from the TPF system.

This section discusses many of the application programming interfaces (APIs) used in writing TPFCS applications. For more information about these APIs, see the TPF C/C++ Language Support User's Guide.