Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!caip!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!jade!eris!mwm From: mwm@eris.berkeley.edu Newsgroups: net.decus,net.unix Subject: Nifty feature in VMS alias mechanism Message-ID: <1065@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Wed, 6-Aug-86 19:05:27 EDT Article-I.D.: jade.1065 Posted: Wed Aug 6 19:05:27 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 9-Aug-86 03:46:12 EDT References: <486@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU> <1000@ttrdc.UUCP> Sender: usenet@jade.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: mwm@eris.UUCP () Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 38 Xref: watmath net.decus:443 net.unix:8828 In article <859@kbsvax.steinmetz.UUCP> davidsen@kbsvax.UUCP (Davidsen) writes: >What really made this answer so obnoxious is that after all this >overkill flame, the poster didn't say (or, could it be, didn't know) >that the user can define his/her commands with a mechanism similar to >an alias, and get no parameter checking at all. It can even be put in a >startup file and done at login. > >Examples: (! starts comments) > $ check:==$usr$disk:[user.bin]check.exe ! binary executable image > $ redo:==@usr$disk:[user.bin]redo.com ! DCL (shell) command file [Explanation of syntax deleted. It's like a Bourne shell variable assignment, with `:==' replacing `='.] You forgot what I considered the nicest feature of the VMS alias mechanism: $ r*edo:== will make any prefix of "redo" down to "r" valid as a redo. Similarly, $ ch*eck:== will make any prefix of "check" down to "ch" a valid as a check. Nice feature, that. I just wish some Unix shell (ksh, preferably) had it. >Please don't count me as pro-VMS, I have used it since we got our first >VAX (I believe it was S/N < 30) and still only consider it acceptable. >I find the UNIX interface more convenient and the response far better >for small programs due to the overhead of process start in VMS. I've used Unix since v6, and VMS since 1.5 or so, and they are both only acceptable - and each only for some subset of all possible applications. I do find the Unix interface more convenient, but I found the response for small programs better on loaded systems under VMS. Not sure why (but I have my suspicions), and of course the load & configuration (and which version of what is running) are never the same on those systems.