[Info-vax] CLI editing, was: Re: VMS - Virtual Terminals - A security risk way back yonder OR was that an Old Wives Tale ?

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-02-12 19:53:13 +0000, Simon Clubley said:

> On 2016-02-12, Hein RMS van den Heuvel <heinvandenheuvel at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> The other thing Windows is also infinitely better than OpenVMS is for 
>> command line recall and editing. As much as I love OpenVMS and DCL, the 
>> command line editing is a lame joke in DCL.
> 
> If you think Windows CLI editing is better than VMS (and it is), then 
> try bash on Linux. It leaves Windows standing in the dust.

Linux, BSD, Unix, illumos, OS X, etc, all have far better support for 
the command line than does OpenVMS.

>> Shameful, hurtful, NIH syndrome. "we know what's good for you".. no you don't.
> 
> I have expressed my opinions _many_ times on this in comp.os.vms and 
> even submitted formal enhancement requests in the past (with no 
> response to the latter).

Ayup.   No one wants to get near the terminal driver for any 
significant work, absent sufficient schedule and staff for something 
between an overhaul and wholesale replacement.   And that will break 
some existing applications   There's decades of accreted and legacy 
cruft lurking under that particular cairn of code, but — as soon as you 
start turning over any rocks to see what's underneath and to rework and 
replace the worst of it — the COMPATIBILITY! COMPATIBILITY! 
COMPATIBILITY! crowd arrives.    As with more than a few other places 
in OpenVMS, not breaking stuff effectively precludes fixing and 
enhancing and replacing code.   But y'all have heard this rant before, 
of course.


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