## Preface

### Overview

The OSF DCE Application Development Guide provides information about how to program the application programming interfaces (APIs) provided for each OSF Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) component.

Audience
This guide is written for application programmers with UNIX operating system and C language experience who want to develop and write applications to run on DCE.

Applicability
This is Revision 1.2.1 of this document. It applies to the OSFä DCE Version 1.2.1 offering and related updates. See your software license for details.

Purpose
The purpose of this guide is to assist programmers in developing applications that use DCE. After reading this guide, you should be able to program the Application Programming Interfaces provided for each DCE component.

### Document Usage

The OSF DCE Application Development Guide consists of three books, as follows:

- OSF DCE Application Development Guide - Introduction and Style Guide (this document)
- OSF DCE Application Development Guide - Core Components

  | –Part 1. DCE Facilities
  | –Part 2. DCE Threads
  | –Part 3. DCE Remote Call Procedure
  | –Part 4. DCE Distributed Time Service
  | –Part 5. DCE Security Service

- OSF DCE Application Development Guide - Directory Services

  | –Part 1. DCE Directory Service
  | –Part 2. DCS Application Programming
  | –Part 3. GDS Application Programming
  | –Part 4. XDS/XOM Supplementary Information

### Related Documents

The DCE documentation set comprises the following manuals.

- Introduction to OSF DCE

- OSF DCE Command Reference

- OSF DCE Application Development Reference

- OSF DCE Administration Guide - Introduction

- OSF DCE Administration Guide - Core Components

- OSF DCE DFS Administration Guide and Reference

- OSF DCE GDS Administration Guide and Reference

- OSF DCE/File-Access Administration Guide and Reference

- OSF DCE/File-Access User's Guide

- OSF DCE Problem Determination Guide

- OSF DCE Testing Guide

- OSF DCE File-Access FVT User's Guide

- Application Environment Specification/Distributed Computing

- OSF DCE Technical Supplement

- OSF DCE Release Notes

### Typographic and Keying Conventions

This guide uses the following typographic conventions:

Bold | Bold words or characters represent system elements that you must use literally, such as commands, options, and pathnames.
Italic | Italic words or characters represent variable values that you must supply.
Constant width | Examples and information that the system displays appear in constant width typeface.
[ ] | Brackets enclose optional items in format and syntax descriptions.
{ } | Braces enclose a list from which you must choose an item in format and syntax descriptions.
| | A vertical bar separates items in a list of choices.
< > | Angle brackets enclose the name of a key on the keyboard.
... | Horizontal ellipsis points indicate that you can repeat the preceding item one or more times.

This guide uses the following keying conventions:

<Ctrl-x> or ^x | The notation <Ctrl -x > or ^x followed by the name of a key indicates a control character sequence. For example, <Ctrl-C> means that you hold down the control key while pressing <C>.
<Return> | The notation <Return> refers to the key on your terminal or workstation that is labeled with the word Return or Enter, or with a left arrow.

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### Problem Reporting

If you have any problems with the software or documentation, please contact your software vendor's customer service department.

### Path Names of Directories and Files in DCE Documentation

For a list of the path names for directories and files referred to in this guide, see the OSF DCE Administration Guide and the OSF DCE Testing Guide.