MACALLSTR@vax1.physics.oxford.ac.UK.UUCP (03/31/87)
On our 780, I set symbols and logical names which have to be process specific in an image using LIB$SET_SYMBOL, SYS$CRELNM,etc. There are about 300 things to set and the image does a lot more things besides : it also gives itself a priority boost at the start and sets itself back to the user's base priority at the end. The whole business takes only about TWO SECONDS real elapsed time even when the system is 'busy'. I found that executing several different command procedures at login time is not a good idea as file look-ups seem to be very slow : the actual symbol setting in DCL is very fast. I don't think two seconds is much of an overhead on the login sequence so I give all users all symbols. This saves me and them a great deal of time as all commands, etc are automatically available : no special editing of personal login files and no desperate searching of the HELP files for the magic incantation to initialise each package. John