[mod.computers.vax] Some comments on digests 0 #1-#3

u3369429@murdu.OZ.AU.UUCP (03/14/87)

I'm not impressed by the 'digest' format at all, but I take it that this is
only a temporary feature.

But some items have been published in digests #1-#3 which I would like to
comment on.

(BTW, why is this a moderated news group anyway?)


>From: Arno Diehl <DIEHL%iravcl%germany.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET>
>Subject: swing
>
>SWING crashed when you tried:
>       SET DEFAULT DUA0:[000000]   ! to get all directories on that
>       RUN SWING
>
>The reason was LIB$FIND_FILE returning: DUA0:[000000]000000.DIR;1
>causing SWING to search for DUA0:[000000.000000]*.DIR;
>This returned DUA0:[000000.000000]000000.DIR;1 and so on...
>
>A simple modification in procedure LOAD_NODES.FOR will handle this
>situation.
> [fix follows]

Thank you very much. I will incorporate your code in my version.
I got SWING quite stable by now, but I would like to continue working on it.

I think I might re-publish it in about five weeks time in net.sources.
I will probably distribute it then in shar-ed format, using D. Wecker's
Ultrix/VMS/Amiga shar. The major advantage will be that every line starts
with an ordinary character, rather than a string of blanks or tabs.

------------------------------

From: <BEN%TECHMAX.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
>Subject: MAJOR SWING problem

>It seems that swing is a great program, except that users in the same root
>directory can swing to each others directories and delete whole trees! This
>is even more compunded by a problem of a user doing set defaulkt to syslib
>or some other such area and deleting the whole structure. Isn't there some
>owner prot/id routine in SWING? I see a problem here...

SWING will only delete directory structures which you could delete from DCL
anyway. It has the same privileges as the user running it.
 
------------------------------

>From: "Thomas_W._Taylor.WBST147"@Xerox.COM
>Subject: CHECKSUM for SWING
>
>My copy of SWING came through fine (I think), however I had a lot of
>trepidation.  Please, please, please for the future:  if such large
>sources are sent,  send along a checksum(s) so we can determine if
>everything is as intended.  The command is simple:
>        $CHECKSUM 'file'
>        $SHOW SYMBOL CHECKSUM$CHECKSUM
>This will make a lot of us sleep a lot sounder.
>

Next time, I will distribute SWING in net.sources using D. Wecker's shar.
The archive file will include a character count for every file.
Maybe I will think about this CHECKSUM as well.

------------------------------

>From: welch%UMASS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
>Subject: Scanning logical name tables
>
>I have several projects in mind which could use a routine that returns
>all the logical names in a given table.  If anyone has such a routine,
>or the data structure of the VMS V4.x logical name tables, I would be
>glad to hear from you.
>

From DCL, see HELP SHOW LOGICAL .
For high level languages, I don't know. But a procedure using SHOW LOGICAL
can be built and it can re-direct the output to a file which the HLL program
can read.

------------------------------
>From:           <KND@DHDMPI5.BITNET>
>Subject:        Supress Error messages
>
>hi,
>in my logout procedure I delete all .JOU files. But if there are none
>I get an error message that there are no .JOU files. If you see the
>text "error..." on the screen you look at it even it isn't a "real"
>error. Is there a way to suppress the error message
>
>%DELETE-W-SEARCHFAIL, error searching for DRB2:[KND...]*.JOU;*
>
>Assigning SYS$ERROR or SYS$OUTPUT to NL: doesn't help neither a
>SET MESSAGE /DELETE. Could anyone help?

Of course SET MESSAGE/DELETE doesn't do what you want. Did you read
HELP SET MESSAGE /DELETE ?

To get to your problem:
Did you try: Set Message/NoFacility/NoSeverity/NoIdentification/NoText  ?

The lexical function F$Environment("Message") can be used to retrieve the
previous setting into a symbol and then you can restore it, e.g.:
$ Old_Message=F$Environment("Message")
$ Set Message/NoFacility/NoSeverity/NoIdentification/NoText
$ Set Default SYS$LOGIN
$ Delete [...]*.JOU;*
$ Set Message 'Old_Message

------------------------------

>From: Richard Steinberger <STEINBERGER@SRI-KL.ARPA>
>Subject: CONTROL-T and LOAD info
>
>In earlier versions of VMS (4.2 and before I think), typing CONTROL-T displayed
>a "LOAD factor" which gave some idea of how busy the machine was.

I don't recall that facility on any VMS. However, TOPS-20 had exactly that.
------------------------------

Michael Bednarek (u3369429@murdu.oz.au)