[Info-vax] Still no DIR/SORT_BY_TIME

[George Cornelius]

In article <mqo4a5$2pt$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
> On 2015-08-15 18:32:52 +0000, Craig A. Berry said:
> 
>> Offhand I can't think of any reason that a new file system would have 
>> anything to do with giving a utility like the DIRECTORY command the 
>> ability to sort by date, though there could of course be ways a 
>> redesign could make various metadata searches more efficient.
> 
> The current DIRECTORY behaviour falls out of always having sorted 
> directories.  If directories are (hypothetically) no longer stored in 
> sorted order, then there will either be mass panic and much gnashing, 
> or some component such as DIRECTORY will be reworked to sort the 
> responses.   Once sorting happens in one spot, it's a short stroll to...

RSX-11M used ODS-1, which did not have sorted directories.
To list a directory (unsorted) you did

  MCR> PIP/LI

where PIP was the Swiss Army Knife of file management.

I believe that even if you used DCL as your CLI (M+ only)
it under the covers generated the various PIP commands.

There was a sorted directory lister available via the DECUS
library, SRD, that did sorted listings.  I guess no one saw
a need to port it to VMS, although some features, such
as the ability to us $FAO style data insertion to generate
a listing (generally a script) from the selected filenames,
apparently made it into DFU.

George