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Documentation Conventions

Summary:

Syntaxes

The term of 'syntax' is global and indicates the way to use a product function. For example, it can be used to describe a language instruction or a system command:

Syntax:

CALL function ( [ parameter [,...] ] ) [ RETURNING variable [,...] ]

Wildcard characters in syntax definitions are marked with an underscore:

Wildcards

 Description
[   ] Square braces indicate an optional element in the syntax.
{ | } Curly braces indicate a list of possible elements separated by a pipe.
[...] Indicates that the previous element can appear more than once.
[,...] Previous element can appear more than once separated by a comma.

Warnings

Warnings are important technical remarks, describing special behavior of the product function:

Warning: When a DATE, DATETIME or INTERVAL constant cannot be initialized correctly, it is set to NULL.

Code Examples

Code examples are written with line numbers and language syntax highlighting as follows:

Example 1:

01 MAIN
02   DEFINE a1 ARRAY[100] OF INTEGER,
03         a2 ARRAY[10,20] OF RECORD
04              id INTEGER,
05   ...

Enhancement references

In some parts of the documentation you can find enhancement reference notes with a number identifying the request in our internal database:

Enhancement reference: BZ#1827

De-supported Features

Product features that are no longer supported are marked with the red warning: De-supported!


The WIDGET="BMP" attribute De-supported!

Elements marked with this flag are no longer supported in the product.

IBM Informix Specific Features

Features that are specific to IBM Informix database servers are marked with the red warning: Informix only!


DATABASE dbname@dbserver Informix only!

Elements marked with this flag work only with Informix database servers, and are not recommended for multi-database programming.