[Info-vax] SET DEF and Other Questions Regarding DIR on a Different Hard

[MG]

On 28-jan-2013 16:10, Bob Koehler wrote:
>     Classic DECWindows, or CDE?

Good that you asked, I meant the "New Desktop"/CDE DECwindows.


>     Classic DECWindows File Manager thinks it knows too much about file
>     name syntax, it does not work entirely well with ODS-5.  When using
>     extended file names with both user files and directories, it has a
>     habit of showing the correct file names, but thinks the directory
>     name is invalid.  Should have been coded to accept whatever file
>     names Files-11 is returning.

Actually, also the "New Desktop"/CDE DECwindows suffers from poor
ODS-5 interaction (in my experience at least).  Certain file names,
certain file name lengths, etc. seem to even make the "File Manager"
(e.g. "DTFILE") program crash, when I last messed around with it on
VMS I64.

Because of those poor experiences --- but also, because I always
found the excellent DCL CLI far more useful and interesting --- I
barely saw the need to use any GUI much under VMS.

I found it magical, at first, to see CDE (as I was used to seeing
it in UNIX/-derived environments) but then with the fileSpec, file
versions and so forth.  It's sad that the 'desktop' barely evolved,
or didn't improve much in recent years.


>     But in a great many ways, classic DECWindows File Manager is more
>     powerfull than CDE so I've ignored the errors, and learned to tell
>     it [000000] instead of [0,0], ...

That wouldn't surprise me!  It's nice that they still include "Classic"
with VMS I64.

  - MG