The set of subroutines described here are designed to allow access to ASTERIX source search results datasets (SSDS). They supersede the 1st generation routines which followed the "think of everything" approach, which failed conspicuously to keep up with with the functionality required of them.
The SSO'137 subroutines have been designed to be as few and as flexible as possible - they are not optimised for speed as few applications use more than one or two of the routines.
The facilities provided by the SSO package are designed to map easily onto a typical database access package - it is hoped that the need for these routines will eventually be removed by a Starlink database system and thus provide the applications which use them a more flexible choice of data format.