DCL and EDT for Unix?

[John B. Gardner]

In article <1991Jun19.122116.8961 at cs.utk.edu> Dave Sill <de5 at ornl.gov> writes:
>In article <91169.171310SCHDAVZ at YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu>, SCHDAVZ at YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (Dave Schweisguth) writes:
>>I'd like to find clones of VMS' DCL and EDT (and/or TPU) for a Personal Iris.
>>...
>>Identical look-n'feel is a BIG
>>priority, since we have here a large group of Vax users who (quite rightly)
>>want to spend as little time as possible learning how to use another #$%@&
>>computer ...
>
>This is the wrong approach.  Attempting to hide UNIX from your users
>with a mask of VMS will only lead to frustration in the long run.
>There will be lots of picky little incompatibilities, forcing
>everything through a VMS model is inefficient, and you won't be able
>to take advantage of the features of UNIX that make it worthwhile.


Ahhh, I totally disagree.  Now granted I'm referring to COVUEshell, which
is available only on Convex machines, so won't help Mr. Schweisguth, but
I beleive VCL (BBC) et al have similer implementations.

"There will be lots of picky little incompatibilities"  No, there isn't.
There _is_ greater flexibility, in that the user can selectively and 
globally affect the operation of version numbers, file name extension
permutations, case translation, etc.  But the defaults can be set to
operate _exactly_ as DCL handles them.

"forcing everything through a VMS model is inefficient",  No, it isn't.
The "emulation" is a C-compiled implementation of DCL, just like DCL is
a MACRO implementation of DCL.  In the case of COVUEshell, the emulation
runs as a normal "UNIX shell" and is no less efficient than tcsh, csh,
or any other "normal" shell.  It runs just as fast as on a native VMS
machine, faster in fact, if you take into account the available CPU power.

"and you won't be able to take advantage of the features of UNIX that make 
it worthwhile",  Not true.  All available UNIX features are accessible
from within the emulation.

And in "learn" mode every DCL command generates the corresponding UNIX
command that would do the same thing, a very effiecient means of learning
to use UNIX.

Keep in mind that VMS/DCL is a _very_ widespread and effective system.
Although _I_ happen to prefer UNIX as an everyday tool, it would be 
inappropriate for me to demand the entire world follow suit.  Each has 
its place, and using one of the emulation packages can allow both to work 
in harmony.

Obviously UNIX, VMS & DCL, VCL, and COVUEshell are trademarks of ATT, DEC, 
BBC, and Convex respectively.  These comments are personal and do not reflect
the views of any company in any way.

--
   /\ /_  _    jgardner at convex.com
   \//_//_/
   /     /     "Poor is the man whose pleasures depend
  /    \/       on the permission of another" -Madonna