[Info-vax] Suggested DCL enhancement

[Hein RMS van den Heuvel]

On Tuesday, November 3, 2020 at 8:40:53 AM UTC-5, Simon Clubley wrote:
> Here's an idea for a DCL enhancement: implement a control character that 
> when typed causes DCL to dump all the valid options or keywords available 
> at that point by reading from the CLD. 
> 
> For example, typing: 
> 
> $ show device <Ctrl-P> 
> 
> where <Ctrl-P> is the control character, would result in a list of all 
> the qualifiers (along with any optional arguments to the qualifiers) 
> that can be used at that point. The CLD format could also be enhanced 
> with a single-line help text per qualifier that would also be displayed 
> as part of the output. 
> 
> The output would also show that a parameter, labeled as (for example) 
> "Device_Name", could be supplied at this point as well. 
> 
> Likewise, typing: 
> 
> $ show d<Ctrl-P> 
> 
> (with no space between the "d" and the Ctrl-P) would show all the valid 
> options beginning with "d" at that point. 
> 
> Any comments ? 
> 
> Simon. 
> 
> -- 
> Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP 
> Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.

Too little too late, but still welcome!
No doubt the character would have to be <TAB> (HT, 0x09), compatible with Powershell and others.
It has no meaning/value  in DCL and using it on an older system would not create bad surprises, just nothing useful.
In Powershell <TAB> circles through all completion options in alphabetical order.
Shift-<TAB> goes backwards but that's not available in a regular terminal session on OpenVMS

TABbing should include filename lookup/completion when appropriate in the command line position.

Cheers,
Hein