Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!aurora!labrea!decwrl!decvax!ucbvax!LBL.GOV!nagy%warner.hepnet
From: nagy%warner.hepnet@LBL.GOV (Frank J. Nagy, VAX Wizard & Guru)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: RE: What is SDL?  (was RE: External definitions for SYS$ ...)
Message-ID: <880119051701.20e00e23@LBL.Gov>
Date: 19 Jan 88 13:17:01 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 23

>   Awright, guys, I give up. What's SDL? It's not in the Master Directory, and
> it's not in my DEC Dictionary. The system responds to '$ SDL' with '_File:',
> and there's an SDLNPARSE.EXE in SYS$SYSTEM, but no help that I can find.
> Curiosity is going to kill this cat :-).
     
SDL stands for one of System/Structure/Symbolic Definition Language (sort
of like EVE, take your pick).  It is the successor to MDL - Maynard
Definition Language (.MDL files from older fiche).  You can't find SDL
because its not distributed with the system (boo hoo ;-) as it is not
a "supported" product.  A number of people have been trying for years
to get Digital to document and ship SDL with VMS or sell it as a layered
product to no avail.  Why?  Well, VMS makes it so easy to write
subsystems and applications using multiple languages *EXCEPT* for
providing a means to generate symbol/structure definitions for those
multiple language modules from a common source.  Anyone with SCAN
want to write a PD version of SDL for the net and DECUS?


= Frank J. Nagy   "VAX Guru & Wizard"
= Fermilab Research Division EED/Controls
= HEPNET: WARNER::NAGY (43198::NAGY) or FNAL::NAGY (43009::NAGY)
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