[Info-vax] : Re: Default protection question

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <ibmsme$11v$1 at speranza.aioe.org>, Wilm Boerhout
<wboerhout-deletethis at gmail.com> writes: 

> > But can't EVERY directory (not just numerical ones) be written with<>
> > instead of []?
> >
> > Try
> >
> >     $ SET DEFAULT<>
> >
> > Yes, it will break some procedures which make too many assumptions.
> 
> You're right. The numerical thingy and the <> thingy are unrelated / 
> independent and the <> may be used instead of [] in any directory 
> designation. As you say, most DCL procedures only expect [] when doing 
> their home-made parsing of directory strings. f$parse() will recognize 
> either. Anybody care to check whether that's still true on V8.4 ?

Very, very probably.  Consider the output of INSTALL LIST.  Also, check 
out how many DCL procedures in SYS$MANAGER use <> as directory 
delimiters.  VMS expects this to be valid at a very low level.