[Vim-vms] RE: VIM on OpenVMS

[Ries, Frank]

Hi Bram and Zoltan,

Thank you both very much for your responses on this.

I had put an "#include <trmdef.h>" in os_unix.h under the VMS
conditional which is already there and has a bunch of other VMS
includes. I thought that it should go there rather than in os_vms.h
since the other includes were there. If you think that include should go
into os_vms.h, let me know. I want to make sure I follow your
conventions.

Also, I included the "#ifdef __GNV" in the code segment that I gave you
just so that you could see the new and the old code. I don't need to
have that in any final version if you decide to go with my code. At this
point, I have no other changes to VIM in order to use it with GNV.
Zoltan, you did a great job!

One recommendation I might make is in the "VIM, TMP and VIMRUNTIME" or
any other logical names you might use. Including a special character,
such as a dollar sign ($) in the logical name helps prevent some
problems you can run into with symbol substitution in VMS. For example,
if you define the logical name "VIM" to be "DISK:[PATH.VIM]" and then
try to give a command like "TYPE VIM" you would expect that command to
type out a file named "VIM" in your current directory. However, DCL will
substitute "DISK:[PATH.VIM]" for "VIM" to result in the command "TYPE
DISK:[PATH.VIM]", which is not what the user would expect. If instead
you used the logical names "VIM$, TMP$ and VIMRUNTIME$", this would be
much less likely to happen. Perhaps to keep backward compatibility, VIM
could use both sets of logicals? Just a thought.

I have access to ALPHA and VAX systems running OpenVMS V6.2, and I will
try the code I gave you on both to make sure there are no issues with
the older versions of OpenVMS. I'll let you both know how that goes.

Bram, do you have any licensing issues with us including VIM with GNV?
As I stated in my original email, GNV is open source, and is free to
all. We are hoping that if you do include the fix I have provided that
we will not have to make any changes to VIM ourselves, but just include
it with GNV.

Thank you both for your help.

Frank Ries


-----Original Message-----
From: Arpadffy Zoltan [mailto:zoltan.arpadffy at essnet.se] 
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 04:48 AM
To: 'Bram Moolenaar'
Cc: Ries, Frank; 'vim-vms at polarhome.com'
Subject: RE: VIM on OpenVMS

Bram, 

>> Frank's code works very well... and it is superior indeed.
>> 
>> Unfortunately, I could not test on older VMS versions than 7.2 (I
just
lost
>> my VAX that runs 6.2), but I assume that Frank did it.
>> 
>> I would have two notes:
>> 1. #ifdef __GNV is not needed - Frank do you have some special reason
to
use
>> this define?
>> 2. #include <trmdef.h> should be included - it defines all TRM$Ms

>I'm glad the suggested code works well for you.

Me too... this character input was pain for long time... seems we are
approaching the best solution.

>Where would trmdef.h need to be included, just above vms_read()?
>For other/older VMS systems: We use "#ifdef VAXC" in os_unix.h.  Does
>that make sense here as well?

Seems both DECC and VAXC have trmdef.h
Therefore #ifdef VMS section in os_unix.h would be the best place to
include.

Frank: could you please verify that it works on older systems as well?

Regards, 
Z