Re: "timer" script from SAMS book or equivalent?

Could someone explain to me how the connection is initialized below? I'm re-writing the script in Ruby...but this is a
stumblingblock for me in the way the C++ libs work. Does the library initial conn automagically? How would one emulate
thisin another language...would it be to run it as the postgres user and connection to template1? 

Thanks,
John

int main( int argc, char * argv[] )
{
   // how is this being initialized?
   connection conn;

   work tran1( conn, "getBegValues" );

   const result & begTupleValues = getTupleValues( tran1, argc > 2 ?
argv[2] : 0 );
   const result & begBlockValues = getBlockValues( tran1, argc > 2 ?
argv[2] : 0 );

   const result & ignore = tran1.exec( argv[1] );

   tran1.commit();

   sleep( 1 );

   work tran2( conn, "getEndValues" );

   const result & endTupleValues = getTupleValues( tran2, argc > 2 ?
argv[2] : 0 );
   const result & endBlockValues = getBlockValues( tran2, argc > 2 ?
argv[2] : 0 );

   printDeltas( begTupleValues, endTupleValues, begBlockValues,
endBlockValues );


}