[Info-vax] A DCL wish list of sorts...

[pcanagnostopoulos at gmail.com]

On Friday, March 15, 2019 at 9:13:16 AM UTC-4, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2019-03-14, pcanagnostopoulos at gmail.com <pcanagnostopoulos at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I proposed rewriting DCL around about 1984. I was quickly disabused of that notion.
> >
> > ~~ Paul
> 
> In your proposed rewrite, what would you have changed ?
> 
> What new functionality would you have added ?
> 
> Simon.

My primary concern was efficiency, since that's what I was getting pressure about. I had written Cerberus, the VMS source control system, in DCL. I was writing VMSINSTAL in DCL. People were giving me the eye in the halls. Although some came around in the end.

So I proposed we rewrite it using "modern" interpreter techniques. It would have to be 100% compatible, of course, because that was the VMS motto.

I would have added something like F$GETDVI, because that was clearly needed. I would have fixed the bug requiring a close quote at the end of a final substitution in a string. I probably would have added the ability to define additional functions. I would have deprecated ampersand substitution. I would have added loops and real arrays.

~~ Paul