[Info-vax] Suggested DCL enhancement

[Jiří Kašpar]

On Tuesday, November 3, 2020 at 2:40:53 PM UTC+1, 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. 

I'd suggest TAB for keyword/qualifier/filename completion and PF2 for help.
There is a lot of ideas how to enhance the DCL, my preferred is specifying filenames as a string in quotes (like in dos prompt) instead of extended parse syntax.
But it will not happen because of reasons already mentioned many times.
So, the only solution seems to be to write a new DCL ourselves.
Let’s call it “dclsh” (sorry, the name openDCL is already in use).
I started this project 15 months ago in secret, as I didn’t know what problems could be expected. 
The aim of the project is to provide the best features from all three worlds (vms, unix, windows), a configurable user interface (line editing, command and file name syntax), and to support vms, unix and windows image activations.
Current status:
1. CDU mostly rewriten in C. There are some enhancements: for example HELP keyword and linux command syntax support. It accepts all .CLD files from sys$update, but does not generate the code for disallow clause yet.
2. A new implementation of the command line editing with a history.
3. Command parsing and CLI routines are reimplemented in C. Not all value types are now supported, TAB and PF2 helper keys are prepared, but not yet implemented.
It runs on linux, but it is written with respect to backport to VMS.

Keep tuned, I’ll try to document the project as soon as possible, as I need it to attract some students to work on it as their diploma projects. I’d like to have a limited function of the shell before VMS 9.2 announcement.

Jiri