ILE C/C++ Programmer's Guide
A service program differs from a program in two ways:
- A service program is bound to existing programs or other service
programs. It cannot run independently.
- A service program does not contain a program entry procedure.
Therefore, you cannot call a service program using an OS linkage
specification. However, you can call a service program with a
c linkage specification, because it contains at least one user
entry procedure. A service program may have data exports rather than a
user entry procedure.
- Service programs are bound by reference. This means that
the content of the service program is not copied into the program to which it
is bound. Instead, linkage information about the service
program is bound into the program.
This process is different from the static binding process used to bind
modules into programs. However, you can still call the service
program's exported procedures as if they were statically bound.
The initial activation is longer, but subsequent calls to any of the service
program's exported procedures are faster than program calls.
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