Does anyone know if there is a shell available for Linux that looks
like the DEC VMS DCL command language.  If not, there should be!

: Does anyone know if there is a shell available for Linux that looks
: like the DEC VMS DCL command language.  If not, there should be!

Gah. . .I thought there was I reason I left VMS. . .  :->

** Martin

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On 21 Sep 1997 00:15:04 GMT, Martin Hebrank <hel...@devel.nacs.net> wrote:

:)

I once stumbled upon a DCL lookalike for DOS, of all things.

I've never ever seen or heard of one for Linux.
I'd probably install it just out of morbid curiosity :)

: Does anyone know if there is a shell available for Linux that looks
: like the DEC VMS DCL command language.  If not, there should be!

Uh, I'm sure I'll regret asking: why?

I used to run DECshell under VMS just to avoid DCL.  Unfortunately, VMS
didn't create processes very quickly, so the Bourne shell habit of running
every command in its own process slowed down things considerably.

But it was a pretty complete Bourne shell and set of v7 utilities. Much
better than DCL.

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Could we at least make any replies in English ??  I'm not saying that
VMS is better than Unix by the way.  I am really interested more for
nostalgic reasons - I have used VMS a lot and I thought it would be
fun.  I have the impression that VMS is dying as an operating system -
is this true?

On Tue, 23 Sep 1997 22:06:19 GMT,

Try that DOS DCL lookalike, maybe in dosemu :)

It does seem that VMS is becoming a bit less pervasive these days.
I know a number of sites that've gone from VMS to either unix or
(hurl) NT.  I don't know of any that've gone the other way.

I _sort_ of miss it myself, for the same reasons.

I wonder if Digital offer it with the Alphs desktops they sell.
If it could coexist with Linux, I'd maybe be interested...

Andrew Costa <c_ch...@chaosnet.wahnapitae.on.ca> wrote in
article <slrn62gvrk.nf.c_ch...@chaosnet.wahnapitae.on.ca>...
Speaking of VMS, can any Unix system (w/addons?) do the kind of
clustering that VMS can?

That is, with distributed locking, etc.  Some sort of scheme
like this (maybe with dedicated disk servers?) would seem to be
useful, for example, in a heavily-hit website.

(If you think VMS clustering was simple failover, like
"clustering" is usually taken to mean now, don't bother
responding).

  si...@uggs.demon.co.uk (Simon Foster),
  In a message on Tue, 23 Sep 1997 22:06:19 GMT, wrote :

SF> Martin Hebrank <hel...@devel.nacs.net> wrote:
SF>
SF> >Simon Foster <si...@uggs.demon.co.uk> wrote:
SF> >
SF> >: Does anyone know if there is a shell available for Linux that looks
SF> >: like the DEC VMS DCL command language.  If not, there should be!
SF> >
SF> >Gah. . .I thought there was I reason I left VMS. . .  :->
SF> >
SF>
SF> Could we at least make any replies in English ??  I'm not saying that
SF> VMS is better than Unix by the way.  I am really interested more for
SF> nostalgic reasons - I have used VMS a lot and I thought it would be
SF> fun.  I have the impression that VMS is dying as an operating system -
SF> is this true?

Yes and no.  "Interesting" parts of VMS live on in Digital UNIX 4.0
(Alphas).  Things like having one file system across multiple physical
disk (no I don't mean the normal UNIX things like mounting a one disk
under another (i.e. /dev/sda1 => /usr, /dev/sdb2 => /usr/local), I mean
/usr being partly on /dev/rz1a and partly on /dev/rz2b, but being one
logical file system).  And all sorts of interesting security features in
the user authorization database (no, don't call it "/etc/passwd", it
isn't).  Disk quotas for groups as well as users.  Stuff like that.

If you just want the DCL commands, and don't really care about actual
DCL functions, there is nothing stopping you from having a .cshrc file
with something like the following in it:

alias dir 'ls -FC'
alias ren mv
alias del rm
alias type cat
alias eoj exit
alias set_host telnet
alias set_default cd
alias compare diff
# (I am not sure this will work -- I am not *still* not a super csh hacker.)
alias purge 'rm -f *~ #*#'

and so on.  (Yes, I've used DCL too.)

Also, a UNIX shell is a very simple sort of program -- much simpler
than a VMS CLI program.  I suppose if you get totally bored, you could
put together a YACC parser for DCL syntax fairly easily, at least for
the basic sorts of commands and to handle some of DCL abbreviation games
(dir, dire, direc, direct, directo, director, directory => ls, etc.)

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In article <slrn62admj.3n.c_ch...@chaosnet.wahnapitae.on.ca>,
+ On 21 Sep 1997 00:15:04 GMT, Martin Hebrank <hel...@devel.nacs.net> wrote:
+
+ >Simon Foster <si...@uggs.demon.co.uk> wrote:
+
+ >: Does anyone know if there is a shell available for Linux that looks
+ >: like the DEC VMS DCL command language.  If not, there should be!
+
+ >Gah. . .I thought there was I reason I left VMS. . .  :->
+
+ :)
+
+ I once stumbled upon a DCL lookalike for DOS, of all things.
+
+ I've never ever seen or heard of one for Linux.
+ I'd probably install it just out of morbid curiosity :)

Boston Business Computing produces a number of OpenVMS
tools for UNIX, Windows, and MS-DOS including  VCL, a DCL
shell.  It also includes many DCL utilities like SORT, DIFF,
DUMP, as well as lexicals and OpenVMS style help.

Our other products include an enhanced EDT emulator (EDT+),
a VMS MAIL interface to UNIX mail (Vmail), and an
OpenVMS BACKUP emulator (Vbackup) that will read and
write OpenVMS save sets.

For additional information visit the WWW site at:

                http://www.bbc.com

Or send mail to:

                sa...@bbc.com

Regards,

David Pikcilingis

Boston Business Computing            OpenVMS to UNIX Solutions
13 Branch Street                       PH : (978)725-3222
Methuen, MA 01844-1955   www.bbc.com   FAX: (978)725-3229