Added February 2018

Beginning with A-Shell 6.5.1623 and compiler edit 844 of December 2017, collections can be passed by reference in a subroutine to an SBX. On the calling side, the syntax is the same as for passing a DIMX array of structures, i.e. just specify the collection name with an empty set of parentheses, e.g.:

dimx $coll, ordmap(varstr;varstr)

...

xcall MYSBX, $coll(), ...

The receiving side is also similar to that for receiving a DIMX array of structures, i.e. you must first declare the receiving array with a variation of the DIMX statement including the BYREF clause, e.g.

dimx $locoll, ordmap(varstr;varstr), byref

Then use XGETARG or XGETARGS to receive the collection...

xgetargs $locoll(), ...

or

xgetarg 2,$locoll()

See MAPDIR.SBX and associated TSTMAPDIR in SOSLIB:[907,45] for a useful working example.

History

2017 December, A-Shell 6.5.1623:  Add capability to A-Shell.