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

[David Froble]

Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2015-01-21 15:37:47 +0000, JF Mezei said:
> 
>> 1- Is it possible to get DCL to support modern quoting that causes 
>> less irritation to Hoff ?
> 
> If you believe that quoting is the extent of my issues with DCL, kindly 
> please re-read some of my earlier messages.
> 
>> 2- DCL versions
>>
>> How difficult would it be to do something like Unix and have the first
>> line of a DCL command procedure define the DCL flavour.
> 
> Implementing a shebang-like 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_(Unix)> prefix in the file?   
> Certainly technically feasible, but it'd mean stuffing both CLIs into P1 
> space or figuring out how to remap the CLIs on the fly, and logic to 
> figure out which grammar was in current use within a process.    Much 
> easier to have separate CLI images and separate processes.   Certainly 
> if the shebang approach was generalized beyond DCL grammar selection, 
> it'd allow other languages to be invoked.   But then the shebang is not 
> how VMS traditionally differentiates this stuff, as VMS depends on 
> another of my favorite morasses, the file type.  It'd be more typical of 
> VMS to use a different file type, whether .DCL64 or maybe resurrecting 
> the old CMD extension from eons past.  Or if John Reagan does get around 
> to working on the DCL replacement, he could name it .JCL.   Changing the 
> new file type away would avoid some of the confusion that arises in 
> network file transfers secondary to the use of .COM for Windows 
> executable files.
> 
> Can't say I see any of this happening anytime soon, though.
> 
> 

Which leads back to the question "if there are working alternatives, why 
not just use them?"