The SOR$BEGIN_SORT routine initializes the sort process by
setting up sort work areas and provides key specification and
sort options.
Specify the key information with the key_buffer argument, with
the user_compare argument, or in a specification file. If no key
information is specified, the default (character for the entire
record) is used.
You must use the SOR$BEGIN_SORT routine to initialize the sort
process for the file, record, and mixed interfaces. For record
interface on input, you must use the lrl (longest record length)
argument.
Some of the following condition values are used with different
severities, depending on whether SORT/MERGE can recover. Thus,
if you want to check for a specific status, you should use
LIB$MATCH_COND.