Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!mordor!sri-spam!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!GALLUA.BITNET!CADS_COLE
From: CADS_COLE@GALLUA.BITNET ("Kevin Cole at Gallaudet U. Washington DC")
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: RE: VMS global symbols
Message-ID: <8804180142.AA03711@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 12 Apr 88 16:53:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29

Mike Temkin <sdcrdcf!csun!mst@hplabs.hp.COM> writes:

>I have a few programs that need command line parameters passed to them.
>The documentation that comes with them (not much there) shows that a global
>symbol ( :== ) should be used.  I have tried to get them to work, but
>I see no difference between typing 'RUN PROGRAM' and setting a global
>symbol like 'PRG :== RUN PROGRAM 'P1 'P2' then typing 'PRG param1 param2'.

Sounds like the "dreaded foriegn command syndrome" to me...  (Not terribly
dreadful, actually.)  Try this:

    $ PRG :== $ disk:[directory]PROGRAM

You have to specify the disk and directory with this form of the command.
Otherwise the machine tries to run something in SYS$SYSTEM.  Anyway, using
the "$" instead of "RUN" allows some programs to get at your parameters.

(I'm sure some guru out there will provide a more "in-depth" explaination, so
 I'm not sure why I bothered...)

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Kevin Cole      <Flatline>              BITNET: KJCOLE@GALLUA.BITNET
Center for Assessment and                               or
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