[Info-vax] DCL's flaws (both scripting and UI)

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <m9ocr8$2ge$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
>On 2015-01-21 13:10:24 +0000, johnson.eric at gmail.com said:
>
>> I would imagine that even Froble could concede that there was a time 
>> that he looked forward to new features added to his trusty DEC Basic 
>> toolset.
>> I would hope that familiarity with that excitement could enable one to 
>> understand why others might be drawn to the features of newer languages.
>
>Or to the substantially updated and got-to-have-it versions of VMS, 
>from the ancient times.   Outside of the folks that want or need 
>Poulson-class servers, that's probably not V8.4-1H1.  Whether the 
>x86-64 port or subsequent releases can add significant new features — 
>beyond the platform port — probably depends on how big VSI can get and 
>particularly on how much revenue they can realize from their initial 
>VMS and LP releases and/or support.
>
>As for the future of BASIC, it'd be interesting to see what might 
>happen should VSI decide to overhaul DEC BASIC, adding object support, 
>pointer support, garbage collection and maybe some other new features 
>into the language.  This'd probably best follow the Visual Basic AS 
>syntax for pointers, given the VB syntax is long established.  This 
>won't draw all that many folks away from C, C++, Python or other 
>higher-profile languages.  But the crowd using VB was and probably 
>still is bigger than the crowd using VMS, l'd expect.
>
>The flaws in DCL, however, remain.  It's clunky and confusing to use 
>with its asymmetric quoting and its fondness for quoted quotes for 

Not any less "clunky and confusing ot use" than trying to cast C function
pointers.  You either know its quirks and syntax or you have to learn it.



>various tasks, and that BASIC and Macro32 can solve various of these 
>limitations — sort of, as BASIC doesn't have a good way to chain 
>together a series of commands, short of spawning off DCL — won't draw 
>new folks to VMS.

The problem with spawning a command is that it is now NOT running in the
context of the process in which it might be trying to act upon.



>Now as to whether VSI can get to profitability and can then start 
>seriously chasing what's available on other platforms, and can start 
>growing the user base?  That's no small and no simple project, either.

I'd think that a goal of simply maintaining the user base is better goal.

-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.