[Info-vax] Access to _all_ VMS system services and library functions from DCL ?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 7/12/2017 10:04 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2017-07-11 02:34:27 +0000, Arne Vajhj said:
>> On 7/10/2017 12:21 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>>> We can either get DCL dragged forward kicking and screaming into the 
>>> early part of this millennium and with a near-inevitable morass of 
>>> UTF-8 hackery and the requisite technical debt inevitable with 
>>> upward-compatibility, or we can get something better aimed at what 
>>> we're going to be doing in 2027, and leaving DCL to quietly graze out 
>>> in some code-pasture out behind BoltonHQ.   Well, that for those of 
>>> us that aren't already or aren't planning to retire in place, and 
>>> with apps that are similarly retired.
>>
>> Yes but no.
>>
>> Yes - I agree that VMS needs a new scripting language and VMS needs 
>> new API's.
>>
>> No - I don't think having the new scripting language only support the 
>> new API's will work. Some interoperability is needed for a transition 
>> period of 1-2 decades.
> 
> So your suggestion is to drag DCL forward, adding more complexity and 
> more hackery and more cruft to the design, all in the effort of 
> providing something that DCL itself has never done?   This in addition 
> to a replacement?   This is the path for getting DCL further entrenched, 
> and to delay work and development of the new design, and to make the new 
> environment less interesting.  That's not the path toward a pleasant 
> retirement for the DCL environment, continuing to do what it's always done.

Actually not.

I am suggesting minimal improvement for DCL plus a new scripting language.

But I want the new scripting language to support old VMS features, because
I see that as a requirement for success.

Arne