ADLER1@BRANDEIS.BITNET (09/08/87)
I am interested in learning to use RMS and SMG on VMS. I have had so much difficulty reading the VAX documentation in the past that I am now too discouraged to try to learn RMS and SMG from the documentation. The staff here is not too helpful with anything beyond the basic applications software since the literati seem to feel that the documentation is by definition the solution to the problem of learning to use the VAX and that if one can't read the documentation then one has no business trying to do what one is trying to do anyway. One incident that left me particularly skeptical about using the documentation was when I spent a week copying a program illustrating the use of RMS with C from the VAX C manual only to find that the program had some errors in it and no one here could straighten me out about it. But I'm not here to gripe. I just want to learn to use the facilities RMS and SMG as I mentioned above. I don't know FORTRAN but I know some C. I find that the documentation is not very helpful when it comes to giving examples that involve calling things from C. I also know some LISP. From what I am told by some of the local wizards, the key to using RMS and SMG involves understanding the common calling conventions of VMS. So I probably need to understand the common calling conventions as well. My question is this: what is the most painless and efficient way to learn the common calling convention and the use of RMS and SMG ? Is there some place I can read about it where I can get the ideas as well as the details ? I would like above all to understand what I am doing. I welcome your comments. Sincerely, ADLER1@BRANDEIS.BITNET