NAME

   rpc_intro - Introduction to the DCE RPC programmer commands

 DESCRIPTION

   DCE RPC provides the following programmer commands:

     +  The idl command invokes the Interface Definition Language
        (IDL) compiler to convert an interface definition, written
        in IDL, to output files.

     +  The uuidgen command creates a UUID string that you assign to
        an object to uniquely distinguish it from other objects.

   See each command's reference page for further information.

   IDL Base Data Types and IDL-to-C

   The following table lists the IDL base data type specifiers.
   Where applicable, the table shows the size of the corresponding
   transmittable type and the type macro emitted by the IDL compiler
   for resulting declarations.

                   Base Data Type Specifiers - rpc_intro
           ___________________________________________________________
                      Specifier                        Type Macro
           (sign)     (size)      (type)     Size      Emitted by idl
           ___________________________________________________________
                      small       int        8 bits    idl_small_int
                      short       int        16 bits   idl_short_int
                      long        int        32 bits   idl_long_int
                      hyper       int        64 bits   idl_hyper_int
           unsigned   small       int        8 bits    idl_usmall_int
           unsigned   short       int        16 bits   idl_ushort_int
           unsigned   long        int        32 bits   idl_ulong_int
           unsigned   hyper       int        64 bits   idl_uhyper_int
                                  float      32 bits   idl_short_float
                                  double     64 bits   idl_long_float
                                  char       8 bits    idl_char
                                  boolean    8 bits    idl_boolean
                                  byte       8 bits    idl_byte
                                  void       -         idl_void_p_t
                                  handle_t   -         -

   Note that you can use the idl_ macros in the code you write for an
   application to ensure that your type declarations are consistent with
   those in the stubs, even when the application is ported to another
   platform.   The  idl_ macros are especially useful when passing
   constant values to RPC calls.  For maximum portability, all constants
   passed to RPC calls declared in your network interfaces should be cast
   to the appropriate type because the size of integer constants (like
   the size of the int data type) is unspecified in the C language.

   The idl_ macros are defined in dce/idlbase.h, which is included  by
   header files that the IDL compiler generates.

 RELATED INFORMATION

   Commands: idl
             uuidgen

   Messages: OSF DCE Problem Determination Guide.

   Books:  OSF DCE Application Development Guide.