[Info-vax] DCL Integer Overflow

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <ok3r10$ka2$1 at gioia.aioe.org>, =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=c3=b8j?= <arne at vajhoej.dk> writes:
>On 7/11/2017 11:11 AM, VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
>> In article <841537a9-2fd0-4f8b-b6ff-a2cd022c7683 at googlegroups.com>, osuvman50 at gmail.com writes:
>>> On Tuesday, July 11, 2017 at 9:08:50 AM UTC-4, Bob Koehler wrote:
>>>> In article <770567ee-5f37-4e67-b128-e3ca20989e98 at googlegroups.com>, osuvman50 at gmail.com writes:
>>>>>
>>>>> I said clean way, embedding the index in the symbol name is an ugly hack.
>>>> And doing a(b(i)) requires intermediate symbols.
>>>>
>>>>     No, it's a beautiful hack.
>>>>
>>>>     Now, define "clean".
>>>
>>> Clean means an array is readily identifiable as an array via declaration (i.e.
>>> dimension statement) and not something inferred by examining the usage.  Plus, the
>>> less symbol substitution syntax the better (do i need ' here or ''?).
>> 
>> In bash, it's:
>> 
>> Array[i][j] = x
>> 
>> Not all that much of a deal in DCL:
>> 
>> Array'i''j' = x
>
>Well, since it is not builtin syntax, then it is possible
>to get wrong. And in fact as Hoff already pointed out then
>the above code has got it wrong.
>
>It can be fixed, but the fix is based on convention
>not language syntax, so two developers may pick
>different conventions resulting in problems.
>
>And there are some technical problems as well, operations
>as simple as:
>* iterate over the array
>* specifying the array as an argument to a call
>are not easy.

What I can not fathom is why anyone would be using DCL or, for that matter,
any interpreted scripting lingo for doing such things?

I've spent years in the bowels of DCL and know very well how it works.  I
wouldn't write 90% of the stuff I've seen in DCL and the other 10% is not
well written DCL for what it DOES do well.  I have -- there was a thread
here a year or so ago -- extended DCL with with a few more modern program-
ming constructs (while, for) but it doesn't make the fact that it's read-
as-it-goes interpreted any better.  Try booting VMS with my DCL debugger
active and you'll soon see that inordinate amounts of time are spent just
looking (scanning) for target labels -- the greatest offenders being in
the network startups.  A newer scripting language won't make this aspect
any better.  A Ramanujan-Sato series in ANY scripting language will take 
some appreciable lifetime to converge. ;)

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

I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.