W_COSTA@UNHH.BITNET.UUCP (09/16/87)
Hello Netlanders... Can any of you kind souls finger a particular individual or software group within Digital for me? Specifically, I would like to write a letter to the people who work on the DCL (and/or any other) Command Line Interpreter (CLI) for VMS. Background: I am currently working on my Master's thesis in Computer Science (oh no, not another one of them!). My thesis topic involves program [source level] portability issues. In particular, I am trying to develop an abstraction for the kind of information that typically passes between the user and a program via the system's command line interface (DCL, csh, etc.). The ultimate goal would be the creation of a customized interface that would handle command line parsing in a method that is consistent with the conventions of the particular host, *without* the program that uses this interface having to be aware of what host it is actually running on. A quick (simplistic) example: Let's say I create a nice general purpose program that extracts a column of text from 'line' oriented files. It needs an input source, an output sink, and two numbers that indicate the start and end column positions of the section of text to extract. My program would make its need's known to the interface (some how - that's what I'm working on) and the interface, depending upon which system it was built to support, would get the information from the user in the appropriate manner: DCL (VMS): $ EXTRACT INFILE/START=12/END=15 OUTFILE csh (Unix): % xtc -s 12 -e 15 <infile >outfile *SALES PITCH ON* For those of you who write programs for more than one system: wouldn't it be nice to create handy tools like this once, and not have to modify the @%#^& out of them when they get moved to another system? For those of you who use only one system: don't you find it annoying when a neat tool someone gave you works great, but expects you to enter a command line using syntax that is nothing like the tools already on your system? *SALES PITCH OFF* In any case, what I would like is some additional information that is not *explicitly* stated in the big orange books. For example, what is the full syntax for the DCL command line. (A BNF of it would be *wonderful*!) I've pieced together most of it (at least the parts I'm concerned with) and have learned a great deal empirically. Just the same, it would be nice to get the straight poop on what DCL *really* does. Also, I am curious about current work in progress that Digital may be engaged in with any other (current,future) CLIs. Obviously I'm *not* expecting Digital to give away trade secrets here, but there is a chance that there may be some internal documentation that is not "sensitive" in nature that would be OK for me to look at. (Hey, it's worth a shot...) I know I could go the usual route through corporate head quarters, and am ready to do that if and when I have to. However, such 'cold' contacts usually don't get very far. [I can see the reply now: "Dear Sir; Thank you for your interest in Digital Equipment..."] Almost any name to start things rolling is better than my sending a blind 'dear sir'. Any 'inside' info that can be offered by you, gentle reader, would be muchly appreciated. I won't even tell them it was you that fingered 'em! :-) Thanks in advance...BC PS - Flames, comments, questions or suggestions about my thesis topic are *very* welcome. But please send them directly to me rather than further bore the net with such ramblings.... ## ## ## ## +-------------------------------------------------------+ ## ### ## ## ! Bill Costa PHONE: (603) 862-3056 ! ## #### ## ## ! University Computing BITNET: W_COSTA@UNHH ! ## ## ## ######## ! Kingsbury Hall ! ## ## #### ## ! Durham, NH 03824 ! ## ## ### ## ! USA <Insert Standard Disclaimer Here> ! ####### ## ## +-------------------------------------------------------+