Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!mordor!sri-spam!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!YALE.ARPA!LEICHTER-JERRY From: LEICHTER-JERRY@YALE.ARPA Newsgroups: mod.computers.vax Subject: Re: VMS Helpfile differences Message-ID: <8609121033.AA18723@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: Fri, 12-Sep-86 06:34:32 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8609121033.AA18723 Posted: Fri Sep 12 06:34:32 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Sep-86 20:03:02 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 25 Approved: info-vax@sri-kl.arpa ... [D]oing a *$ help lexical f$getsyi item* ... 750's have a 4 line paragraph that says it's a character string, but doesn't list what the possible item are.... [O]n a Microvax, ... it's got MORE information on a smaller machine. It seems to be the case that all the "larger" machines have less info on this query.... The VMS and MicroVMS help files are different. In general, the MicroVMS files are shorter (as you'd expect). For many of the help items that lead to lists of things - several of the lexicals and the system calls, in par- ticular - the MicroVMS file contains a table of all values with a brief explanation, while the VMS file contains a whole additional level of help, with an entry given a fuller explanation of each item. Since the additional level is there, the table isn't. Unfortunately, the extra level seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way for a couple of these help topics, leading to the amusing situation des- cribed above: The "smaller" MicroVMS help file actually contains MORE infor- mation than the "larger" VMS help file. The problem seems to be getting solved gradually - several instances that were present in V4.1 were fixed in V4.2. While I haven't looked, I expect several more were fixed in V4.3 and V4.4. It appears that some remain, how- ever. -- Jerry -------