[Info-vax] VMS enhancement suggestion: Add a "read regardless" file open option.

[Simon Clubley]

On 2020-11-10, Craig A. Berry <craigberry at nospam.mac.com> wrote:
>
> (N.B. I have never seen nor used RSTS/E and have no idea what mode 4096 
> was.)
>

On RSTS/E, when you opened or created a file, you could specify
a bitmap-encoded 16-bit integer as a mode argument.

For example, when you created a file, you could set a bit which indicated
that you wanted the file created as a contiguous file.

When you opened a file, you could include 4096 in the mode argument to
indicate that you still wanted to open the file even if it was still
being created by another program.

The program behind various directory commands on RSTS/E was called PIP
and you could (1) invoke it directly and (2) specify a mode argument
when PIP was directly invoked. This meant you could type:

	pip filename.dat/mo:4096

from the command line to examine a file even if it was still being
created by another program.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.