[Info-vax] bizarre SEARCH bug (7.3-2 Alpha)

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <qqbu6j$lak$1 at dont-email.me>, Dave Froble
<davef at tsoft-inc.com> writes: 

> On 11/11/2019 9:12 AM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> > I realize that this is an old version of VMS; I just want to understand
> > the problem.
> >
> > When checking a LaTeX document for unmatched (, ), [, and ] (unmatched {
> > or } will cause a LaTeX error), I noticed the following:
> >
> > $ creat x.x
> > \cite[see \eg{}~][for \tIas{} data]{AConleyetal11a}
> > $ sea x.x [,]/match=and
> > \cite[see \eg{}~][for \tIas{} data]{AConleyetal11a}
> >
> > What is strange is that the second "]" is not highlighted.  The text
> > contains many examples of two of each in one line, and the others look
> > OK, whether or not there is text between the matching pairs or not.
> > Here is a minimal example:
> >
> > $ creat y.y
> > [][] Exit
> > $ sea y.y [,]/match=and
> > [][]
> >
> > Again, the second "]" is not highlighted.
> >
> > On 8.4, there are no problems.
> >
> > Can anyone else reproduce this?
> >
> > Whatever could cause it?
> >
> 
> I did the test on VAX/VMS V7.2 and it worked as you desired, ie; all 
> characters highlighted.
> 
> I have no actual knowledge why an old Alpha version would not work the 
> same, and I do not have any Alpha systems running such an old version of 
> VMS.  Note, Steve is going to beat you with an ugly stick for using such 
> old software.
> 
> I can speculate, and my best guess would be that DCL is confused.  When 
> searching for non-alpha/numeric characters, I always use quotes ("") to 
> assist DCL in understanding.  Of course, it's only a guess.
> 
> You could test on your ancient OS.
> 
> $ search y.y "[","]" /match=and

Doesn't help.

Yes, it's ancient, but I do have 8.4 in the cluster.  With hobbyist 
patches now more difficult to get, I tend to stay with things which more 
or less work.  I didn't go to 8.4 on all machines since DECWindows had 
stopped working after the upgrade to 8.4.  With x86 just around the 
corner, it's not worth worrying about this.  Life is short.

Still, apparently it worked, then didn't for a while, then worked again.