[Info-vax] Can DCL be enhanced to report why a qualifier is ambiguous ?

[Simon Clubley]

On 2021-05-28, arca... at gmail.com <arcarlini at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, 27 May 2021 at 19:57:25 UTC+1, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> I've mentioned this before, but it would be really nice if DCL could 
>> be enhanced to list all the possible candidates in the error message 
>> if you enter an ambiguous keyword. 
>
> Not exactly what you want but you could try this:
>
> $ SET COMMAND SYS$INPUT:
> DEFINE VERB DCLSPELL
> CLIROUTINE SETDCL
> QUALIFIER SPELL_CHECK,NEGATABLE
>
> $ DCLSPELL/SPELL
>
> This will spot commands with typos (which will work if the typo is beyond the fourth character or so):
>
> $ directofy
> %DCL-I-MISSPELL, !AC !AD is misspelled, using !AC !AC!AC
>
> The command still works, it just gives you this extra warning.
>
> It catches qualifiers too:
>
> $ dir/totalness
> %DCL-I-MISSPELL, !AC !AD is misspelled, using !AC !AC!AC
>

Thanks for the info but DO. NOT. WANT. :-)

CLIs should either give an error or process the command line input unchanged.

One of the Linux shells does spell checking. I think its a terrible idea.

> I assume that the odd error messages are because it was either never finished or it was withdrawn/never released and has rotted since.
>

I wonder what other features might be hidden in DCL and if any
of them might be misused if someone was sufficiently creative ? :-)

Simon.

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