In computing, a data descriptor is a structure containing information that describes data.
Data descriptors may be used in compilers,[1] as a software structure at run time in languages like Ada[2] or PL/I, or as a hardware structure in some computers such as Burroughs large systems.
Data descriptors are typically used at run-time to pass argument information to called subroutines. OpenVMS[3] and Multics[4] have system-wide language-independent standards for argument descriptors. Descriptors are also used to hold information about data that is only fully known at run-time, such as a dynamically allocated array.
^Holt, Richard C. (July 1987). "Data descriptors: a compile-time model of data and addressing". ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems. 9 (3): 367–389. doi:10.1145/24039.24051.
^Schonberg, Ed. "Ada Compared with C++". The Advantages of Ada 95. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
^Hewlett-Packard. "Chapter 7 OpenVMS Argument Descriptors". HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
^Honeywell, Inc. (1979). Multics Programmers' Manual – Subsystem Writers' Guide(PDF). pp. 2–13-2–18.
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