jperry@UNIX.SRI.COM (John Perry) (07/07/88)
Does anyone out there know of anybody who has successfully implemented
TOPS-20-like command and filename recognition with the ESCAPE key while
logged in to a VAX/VMS system? Replies and leads will be much appreciated.
John PerryXRBEO@VPFVM.BITNET (Bruce O'Neel) (07/12/88)
Ckermit uses a TOPS 20 like interface in all of its versions, including the vms one. I'm not sure this is really the answer to your question though.
ACSJLD@UBVMSC.CC.BUFFALO.EDU (John L Delgado) (07/13/88)
>> John Perry <jperry@UNIX.SRI.COM> writes: > Does anyone out there know of anybody who has successfully implemented > TOPS-20-like command and filename recognition with the ESCAPE key while > logged in to a VAX/VMS system? Replies and leads will be much appreciated. I have toyed with this very idea many times but my current commitments outweigh any serious consideration to design such an implementation. I'll render some design ideas in the hope it will do some good for some one who does have the time and ambition to do it. Please let me know of any developments... I am most interested. * There is a program called VERB that actually parses the DCLTABLES.EXE (The file that contains the command tables and syntax for DCL). I think it could be modified to help determine the valid commands, so that not only ESCAPE recognition can exist, but ? recognition as well. * File name recognition has been implemented to an extent in GnuEmacs. I wish that DCL had it!!! Some files have the longest names... I sometimes live in GnuEmacs just for this feature. * As to what to do once you parse a command is the high-stakes question. Writing a CLI is non-trivial, and it is not all too secure for some sites. After all, a CLI is a supervisor-mode, privileged image. There is a SYS$CLI system call that LIB$SET_LOGICAL calls. I do not however what the extent of this system service is. Maybe it could be used to call the cli do some action. It would be great if it could run a DCL image (i.e. COPY, etc). * An interpreter with a subprocess running DCL is an alternative, but what a waste of resources! PS: I had a rumour a couple of years ago that VMS V5 was going to have filename and command recognition using the TAB key. But anyone who has seen V5 knows that functionality doesn't exist... Why, DEC, why??? John L Delgado, Academic Computing <------+------> Bitnet: acsjld@ubvms *-|-* Internet: acsjld@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu <------+------>