Programming Guide



global

Declares global JPL variables

Synopsis

global varSpec[, varSpec]...

Arguments

varSpec

Specifies the global variable's name and properties as follows:

varName [[numOccurs]] [(size)] [= initValue]

varName
The name of the variable, where varName is a string that contains up to 31 characters. Global names can use any combination of letters, digits, or underscores, where the first character is not a digit. Panther also allows usage of two special characters, the dollar sign ($) and period (.).

[numOccurs]
Optionally declares varName as an array of numOccurs occurrences. The default number of occurrences is 1. For example the following statement declares dependents as an array of ten occurrences:
global dependents[10]

(size)
Optionally specifies the number of bytes allocated for this variable; Panther automatically allocates an extra byte for the terminating null character. The default size is 255 bytes. For example, the following statement declares the variable zip with a size of 10 bytes:
global zip (10)

= initValue
Optionally initializes the variable to initValue, where initValue can be any expression less than or equal to the variable's size. If no value is assigned, Panther initializes the variable to null string ("").

If the variable is declared as an array, you can initialize its occurrences. For example:

global ratings[5] = {"G", "PG", "PG-13", "R", "NC-17"}

Occurrence values are comma-delimited, and can be any constants or variables that are in scope, including other global variables and widget names.


Description

The global command creates one or more global JPL variables. These variables are visible to the entire application and can be referenced at any time.

Avoid using names already in use by Panther itself–for example, logical key names such as XMIT and EXIT, and bit mask settings such as K_EXPOSE and K_ENTRY. Because Panther uses these variables internally, reinitializing them can yield unpredictable and possibly harmful results.

See Also

vars