Module 1: Introduction to TAL/pTAL

• Introduce the Tandem Transaction Application Language (TAL and pTAL)
• Describe TAL/pTAL programming in the Guardian environment
• Describe tools to assist the developer in writing and debugging TAL and pTAL programs

Module 2: Program organization and general syntax

• Discuss basic syntax and organization of TAL programs
• Discuss identifiers, begin-end blocks, constants, operators, variable declarations, and procedure declarations
• Describe compiler (both TAL and pTAL) directives that control listings
• Describe sourcing from another file
• Explain the environment set up for the Inspect product and compile for syntax only
• Demonstrate basic Inspect software commands

Module 3: Simple data types and arrays program flow statements

• Describe how data is stored and what facilities TAL provides to access data
• Discuss correct data types for various purposes, definitions, literals, labels, and data equivalencing
• Describe types of program flow statements and their usage
• Describe statements for CASE, IF, program control, bit extraction, and manipulation

Lab exercise: Use constructs such as the CASE statement and WHILE loop

Module 4: Terminal I/O

• Discuss how to perform terminal I/O in programs
• Discuss error handling and data conversion

Lab Exercise: Perform terminal I/O to prompt for data and implement data conversion

Module 5: Operators and expressions

Module 6: Pointers and addressing

• Describe direct and indirect data access, pointers, and structures
• Discuss additional pTAL pointer data types
• Discuss data transfer and scan statements to illustrate use of pointers and structures
• Describe pTAL caveats

Lab Exercise: Use pointers, addressing, and data movement

Module 7: Procedures and subprocedures

• Describe procedures and subprocedures, with or without parameter passing
• Discuss procedure declaration, subprocedure declaration, and procedure calls and returns
• Explain the use of formal and actual parameters in procedure calls and returns
• Discuss TAL and pTAL considerations for Guardian procedures that are obsolete for pTAL procedures

Lab exercises:

• Code procedures, with and without parameters
• Invoke procedures, with and without parameters

Module 8: Interfacing C and TAL

• Describe the Common Run-Time Environment (CRE)
• Demonstrate how to interface C and TAL and memory model considerations
• Discuss the use of development tools such as Bind, nld, and noft

Lab exercise: Build runnable units from separately compiled C and/or TAL objects