Article 152911 of comp.os.vms:
In article <3210D756.1DD7ADE3@fermat.mayo.edu>, Patrick Spinler <pjs11@fermat.mayo.edu> writes:
>Hello:
>
>I'd like to ask your advice on a programming problem I'm having with
>callable mail.  I'm running the code fragment below:
>
>  typedef	struct 
>    {
>    short	buf_len;
>    short	item_code;
>    void	*buffer;
>    long	*return_len;
>    }
>  item_sd;
>
>  mail_send () 
>    {
>    long	context_li, status_li;
>    item_sd	input_la[16], output_la[16];
>
>    memset (input_la, 0, sizeof (input_la));
>    memset (output_la, 0, sizeof (output_la));
>
>    status_li = MAIL$SEND_BEGIN (&context_li, input_la, output_la);
>    if (!(status_li & 0x1))
>	{
>	printf ("Failed MAIL$SEND_BEGIN = %u\n", status_li);
>	exit (0);
>	}
>    ...
>
>
>It always errors on MAIL$SEND_BEGIN with an error code of 8290650, which
>I cannot find listed in my documentation.  What am I doing wrong ?
>
>Thanks very much in advance !
>-- Pat

I've made the same mistake with callable mail. You need to make sure you are 
initializing the context argument to zero before you use it. Here's how you 
find that error message.

sear decc$library_include:*msg*.h 8290650

******************************
SYS$COMMON:[DECC$LIB.INCLUDE]MAILMSGDEF.H;2

#define MAIL$_WRONGCTX 8290650


--
David Bratton
University of Houston System
DBratton@uh.edu