6-MAY-83 General Purpose Tools Directory GenRad, Inc. 300 Baker Ave. Concord, MA. 01742 caretaker: Stephen Klein Purpose: The subdirectories of this directory, contain general purpose tools such as command files, executable images, teco macros, etc. This directory contains command files to be called from a user's LOGIN.COM, and documentation files. An effort has been made to group related tools together in dedicated subdirectories. For each subdirectory, this directory contains a command file which defines the symbols needed to access the tools, a text file which documents the tools, and the subdirectory itself. Special files: README.TXT - This file, which provides documentation for this directory. MISC.COM - This command file defines the symbols and logical names needed to run the one-of-a-kind tools. MISC.TXT - Documentation of the miscellaneous commands. THEWORKS.COM - This command file defines the symbols and logical names needed to run all the tools. This procedure calls MISC.COM. To use the tools: The following description assumes that the tools reside on a disk called "SR", in the directory [TOOLS] (and its subdirectories). This is the case at GenRad. Include one of the following in your login.com file: @SR:[TOOLS]THEWORKS To get all definitions for all tools, or or @SR:[TOOLS]MISC To get the one-of-a-kind tools, plus basic and definitions (including logical name vmstools!) @VMSTOOLS:XXX @VMSTOOLS:YYY These represent tool-group definition files. @VMSTOOLS:ZZZ (e.g. "@VMSTOOLS:EDTMACRO") Of course, it is also possible to just use these definition files as a reference and add specific symbol definitions to your login.com, possibly using a different symbol name, but the same equivalence string. For example, if you wanted to invoke the reformatter by typing "REF" instead of "REFORMAT", your login.com could do the following: 1) Invoke THEWORKS.COM or MISC.COM to define "REFORMAT". 2) "$ REF == REFORMAT" 3) "$ DELETE/SYMBOL/GLOBAL REFORMAT" To use the tools on another system: In general, one needs to copy this directory tree onto the system, and edit three logical name assignments. Here are the details: The root of this tree is currently called "TOOLS", and it is a top- level directory, however neither of these is required. For example, the root of this tree could be XX:[AAA.BBB.VMSTOOLS]. The subdirectories are currently called "XCL", "EDTMACRO", "MISC", "CFCOMS", and "MAINT", and these names are required. THEWORKS.COM will need to be edited to correctly define the logical name "vmstools". MISC.COM should also be edited to correctly define "vmstools" and "misctls". For efficiency, this directory should be as close to the top of the tree structure as possible (this will speed up file-opens). NOTE - there are two files that need special preparation. Create [TOOLS.EDTMACRO]EDTHELP.HLB by making a copy of SYS$HELP:EDTHELP.HLB and replacing the KEYPAD module with the definition found in [TOOLS.EDTMACRO]EDTHELP.HLP. E.g. LIBRARY/HELP EDTHELP.HLB EDTHELP.HLP. Also, the NAMES tool needs the datafile [TOOLS.MISC]NAMES.DAT with the following format: DOE, John 1234 HARPO::DOE SMITH, Mark 4321 KERMIT::SMITH ... The elements are last name in caps, comma, space, first name, one or more tabs, telephone extension, tab, electronic mail address. Guidelines for writing a new tool: Command procedures should not abbreviate DCL command names. This is because a private LOGIN.COM file may define a symbol which happens to be an abbreviation for a DCL command (i.e. DIR:==DIR/DATE/SIZE=ALL...). If this type of collision occurs, the command file may not execute properly. Command files should not assume any symbol or logical name definitions other than what appears in MISC.COM. This would make it easy to move the whole environment to any VMS system. Similarly, any support tools refered to should also be in a subdirectory of vmstools. Command files which define logical names should check first to see if the logical name already exists, and if so, delete it. This is to avoid ugly messages when the command file is invoked a second time. This directory should be refered to by the logical name VMSTOOLS, which is defined in MISC.COM. MISC.COM should only define things which are needed by the tools. It is not intended to replace sys$library:syslogin.com (the system-wide login command procedure). Each subdirectory should have a logical name associated with it, which is defined by the .COM file in vmstools for that subdirectory. Execute THEWORKS.COM and check the symbols and logical names which are defined as a result to be sure that the new tool would not redefine any symbols or logical names already in use. Also, log in under the guest account and verify that the tool still works. This is to catch things which you didn't realize you were depending on. How to submit a new tool: 1) Check that it follows the guidelines mentioned above. 2) Find Steve Klein. Contents: MISC MISC.COM is the command procedure (mentioned earlier) which defines all the symbols and logical names necessary to run the miscellaneous tools. Read MISC.TXT for a description of each of the tools. (various authors). CFCOMS Current file command procedures. CFCOMS.COM defines a set of commands which know about the current file, thereby making it unnecessary to constantly be typing filenames over and over...! Included are current file versions of commonly used DCL commands, commands for traversing the directory tree, and current file versions of tools developed at GR. The directory tree traversal commands are included because whenever the default directory is changed, the current file is set to the new directory. CFCOMS is called by THEWORKS. Read CFCOMS.TXT for a description of all the current file commands. Note that several tools are defined in both MISC.COM and CFCOMS.COM. If one gets THEWORKS, the definition in CFCOMS wins out. (author: Stephen Klein). XCL Extended command language. This tool adds interactive command line editing, the ability to re-issue previous commands, and more to DCL. Definition is in XCL.COM. Documentation is in VMSTOOLS:XCL.TXT. Help is also available when XCL is running by pressing the keypad PF1 key. XCL is invoked by typing "XCL" after executing VMSTOOLS:XCL.COM. (author: Ken Budnik). EDTMACRO Edtmacro is a subdirectory which contains EDT initialization files to support the GR editor kepad and control key definitions. To use it, execute the command procedure VMSTOOLS:EDTMACRO.COM in your login.com. VMSTOOLS:EDTMACRO.TXT is the on-line documentation. In addition, extensive help is available while running the editor. (authors: Mark Harley, Gordon Weekly, and others).