[Info-vax] Very simple DCL question

[alanfe...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, December 28, 2022 at 11:45:45 AM UTC-5, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> $ type z.com 
> $ write sys$output "''p1'" 
> $ @z a 
> A 
> $ @z "a" 
> a 
> 
> This is not really surprising. 
> 
> But are there any way to preserve pn case without 
> double-quoting it? 
> 
> Like this hypothetical syntax: 
> 
> $ set proc/parse=(extended,pnkeepcase) 
> 
> Arne

I don't think it's possible without quotation marks. Upcasing is done in the first phase of command parsing/evaluation/whatever. 

See section 12.13 of the v8.4-2L1 Alpha user's manual. It doesn't mention the upcasing, by experiments I did long ago do seem to indicate that the upcasing does indeed occur in phase 1. 

See also section 2.3. I could swear there was some example like abc"def"ghi, but maybe you need an older manual to find that. 

Found some stuff. 
First use SHOW SYMBOL instead of write sys$output "''p1"

$ type z.com
$ write sys$output "''p1'" 
$ show symbol p1
$ 
$ @Z abc"def"ghi
ABCDEFGHI
  P1 = "ABC"def"GHI"
$ 

See Help @ for that example.