[Info-vax] ODS-5 specifications, was: Re: Does OpenVMS Use Unicode?

[hb]

On 06/14/2016 09:05 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:

> Talking about documentation, did the fine details of the ODS-5 on disk
> changes ever make it into any public documentation other than that
> available in header files present in a VMS distribution ?
> 
> For ODS-2 there's McCoy which is a public book you can freely obtain
> but there's nothing similar for the ODS-5 updates which I've ever
> been able to find.

The only documentation I know of are the "header" files. For C: FI5DEF,
FATDEF and DIRDEF in SYS$SHARE:SYS$LIB_C.TLB - but maybe I'm missing
one. And if you look at them, there is no big difference to FI2DEF or to
the previous versions of FATDEF and DIRDEF. With the header files and
McCoy's book you should be able to follow the "on disk structures".

> 
>>>
>>> Did you mean "^U" instead of "^UP"? The first escape sequence is for 
>>> UC2-2, the latter is for specifying Posix path-/filenames in DCL, and 
>>> for that it requires another '^' and quoting:
>>>
>>> $ dir "^UP^./login.com"
>>> "^UP^./LOGIN.COM"
>>>
>>> Total of 1 file.
>>> $
>>
>>
>> I rest my case.
>>
> 
> There are some things I disagree with you about and there are some
> things I agree with you about. The above strongly falls into the
> latter category; the ODS-5 escaping rules are way too complex.

I agree - and the above example is more of a proof that it is too
complex than a proof of a "nice" feature. You named it "ODS-5 escaping"
but it's rather "DCL escaping" as ODS-5 does not see - and does not need
- any of this escaping. Have a look at a DUMP/HEADER of one of the
"escaped" filenames and you will see.