Incorporation of services written in one operating system environment

Abstract

Data processing apparatus comprises a processor and memory. The processor has a supervisor state including a first set of supervisor service routines for controlling the operation of the data processing apparatus. The memory has a first hash table accessible by the supervisor state for pointing to the first set of supervisor service routines and a second hash table also accessible by the supervisor state for pointing to a second set of supervisor service routines. The data processing apparatus provides table indicating means for indicating whether the first hash table or the second hash table is accessible by the supervisor state. The table indicating means is provided as an index into the first hash table. When this index is accessed, further code is executed which allows access to the second hash table. The operation of the data processing apparatus is controlled by a routine comprising the steps of testing to determine which hash table is to be used for calling the routine, using the determined hash table to find the address in the memory at which the code representing the called routine is resident, and executing the routine in the processor. In one embodiment of the invention, the first step comprises testing the operating system environment in the processor. The invention finds particular use in providing in a first operating system environment, such as MVS/ESA.TM., services written for a second operating system environment, such as VSE/ESA.TM..