The user can make use of contexts. This has the following advantages:
Multiple copies of the same program can be loaded into different contexts.
Parts of a comprehensive application can be loaded into different contexts. External references are resolved separately in each individual context. Each partialapplication in a context can therefore be loaded and started as an independent “sub-application”. In this way it is possible to load and start the individual modules of, for example, a runtime system in separate contexts.
Parts of an application belonging to a context can be unloaded with one call.
No name conflicts are caused by having identically named symbols in different contexts because each context has its own symbol table.
When DBL is invoked, a list of information concerning the logical structure and contents of the loaded load unit can be requested.
Up to 100 alternate libraries can be specified for the autolink function.
The user can define according to individual requirements how name conflicts and unresolved external references are to be handled.
When loading a load unit with the BIND macro, the user can specify that:
REP records from a REP file are to be applied to the modules of the load unit
libraries used by DBL are to remain open when processing of the DBL call has been completed. This can speed up processing when DBL is called repeatedly with the same library.