This page is the starting point for accessing the documentation in formats suitable for viewing with Browsers and Bookreader or Printer Friendly Postscript. In the following the title sections are links to the online versions. Of course if you have Ghostview installed than you may also view the Postscript version online. You may also select whether to download zipped versions, which is not only more efficient but is also less prone to error, particularly if you are using Windows in between. When downloading you will use ftp and it should be obvious from the suffix extension the nature of the file, ps for postscript, pdf for Acrobat and DECW$BOOK for Bookreader.

If you are using a version of PL/I earlier than 3.8 for the VAXVMS version 5.5-2 through 7.3 or 4.4 for Alpha VMS Version 6.2 through 8.2 you may wish to consult the release notes for VAX or Alpha

The Software Product Description may be downloaded here.

The Installation Guide, which is common to both VAX and Alpha version may be downloaded here.

The Reference Manual, defines the standard of the language implemented. Differences are noted between Alpha and VAX architectures as well as differences with other implementations. This manual may be downloaded here.

The User's Guide Manual, describes and provides examples of usage in the OpenVMS environment. This manual may be downloaded here.

For more information on the use of PL/I in the Open VMS environment, This site has many examples of PL/I code, ranging from simple applications to systems programming and has a search engine to assist you in locating specific examples. Suppose, for example, that you are looking for coding examples calling SYS$QIOW. Enter, PLI-EXAMPLE + SYS$QIOW into the search engine. Both PL1 and PLI are used in this data base. Click on these links and enter specific items into the search engine to further refine the search. Enjoy using the King of Programming Languages and don't worry about buffer overrun exploits.