SIMSCRIPT II.5 Programming Language

Programming Language Concepts
names defined by the SIMSCRIPT II.5 software are generally of the form letter-period-name or
name-period-letter. Examples of the way these functions may be used are:
if abs.f(X-Y) > 1
let Z = log.e.f(Y)
let D = sqrt.f(A**2 + B**2)
for I = 1 to min.f(max.f(A,B), max.f(X,Y,Z))
Following from the earlier discussion of routine arguments, it might be expected that each library
function would have a defined number of given arguments. This is true with the exception of two
functions, max.f and min.f, which return the maximum or minimum value, respectively, from
any number of given arguments. For uniformity, the function notation is used as described. However,
not all of the library functions are implemented as routines. Depending on the implementation,
they may be directly evaluated within the program statements.
Many of the library functions are implementations of widely used mathematical functions. Some
others, however, have meanings specific to SIMSCRIPT II.5. These will be described further as
the context requires.
The library functions can be used freely in all computations. Function arguments can be arithmetic
expressions of any complexity (including function names) as long as they are of the correct mode
and their values conform with the restrictions listed with the function descriptions.
2.16 Using Non-SIMSCRIPT Routines
With some restrictions, routines written in programming languages other than SIMSCRIPT II.5
may be used in a SIMSCRIPT II.5 routine. To do so, the routine must be specially defined within
the program preamble as:
as a nonsimscript routine
as a fortran routine
By default, agruments to a non-simscript routine are passed by value, while arguments to a
fortran routine are passed by reference. The appropriate SIMSCRIPT II.5 user manual should
be consulted. Yielded arguments may not be specified for any non-SIMSCRIPT routine.
Function values may be returned providing the function mode is correctly defined. In general, the
interpretation of error conditions is not well defined when these occur within non-SIMSCRIPT
routines called from SIMSCRIPT II.5.
2.17 Returning Reserved Arrays To Free Storage
When a reserve statement is executed, an amount of storage space determined from the
dimensions is allocated to the array pointers named in the statement. If at any time the space
associated with an array is no longer required, it may be returned to the free memory pool by
executing a release statement naming the array. The total space requirement of a program may
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