Port specifiers

After the declaration of a task, its ports may be referred to in much the same way as the links of a processor, by a port specifier construct consisting of the task identifier followed by a number enclosed in square brackets:

port spec = task identifier, "[", constant, "]";

For example, either input or output port number 5 on task user would be specified as user[5].

Note that a port specifier as given here does not indicate whether the port concerned is an input port or an output port, that is, whether the index given is into the task's vector of input ports or into its vector of output ports. This information is provided by the context in which the port specifier appears.

In the CONNECT statement, the port specifier's direction is determined by its position within the line.

In the BIND statement, the port specifier is preceded by a direction word (INPUT or OUTPUT).