[Info-vax] OpenVMS - DCL - Data entry filtering

[IanD]

Wow (and sorry for my late reply)

Some interesting solutions posted and interesting discussions generated

I didn't even think of Stack exchange and considering this is more of a programming type question I should have although I don't remember a lot of activity there in the VMS space, time to have a fresh look I think

The question also indirectly raised the point when dealing with older systems and how newer systems can mitigate some of the work-arounds / multi-steps needed in older systems, but how to sell this to the bean-counters? If it's can't be quantified then it cannot be sold to them :-(

Not wanting to bash DCL too much (it is old, not that old things are bad because of just age) but it's feeling more and more like Digital Crippled Language as time goes on (yes, I have another term for DCL and the second word is an expletive lol)

I guess with all the work VSI have on their plate, a modern scripting language replacement of DCL isn't going to be seen on VMS for a while unless it's a community effort but in my workplace, I see the trend towards big enterprise packages continuing and smaller development efforts decreasing with the middle ground being filled in with scripted code because it's free and 'good enough' in most cases. This puts DCL further on the back-foot as far as a workable solution going forward considering it's limitations

Now, time to go and look at the different solutions detailed earlier - thanks all :-)