From: CSBVAX::MRGATE!JOE%FHCRCVAX.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU@SMTP 10-JAN-1988 03:10 To: ARISIA::EVERHART Subj: RE: Re: External definitions for SYS$, RTL$ etc... Received: from oly.acs.washington.edu by KL.SRI.COM with TCP; Sat 9 Jan 88 17:03:40-PST Received: from UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU by oly.acs.washington.edu ; Sat, 09 Jan 88 17:03:56 PST P1-Message-Id: US**EDU;UWAVM.ACS.WASHINGTON.EDU:LCvgNTJJ Date: Sat, 9 Jan 88 17:07-0700 X400-Trace: US**EDU; arrival Sat, 9 Jan 88 17:07-0700 action Relayed X400-Trace: US**EDU; arrival Sat, 9 Jan 88 17:03-0800 action Relayed From: Joe Meadows Subject: RE: Re: External definitions for SYS$, RTL$ etc... To: Message-Id: X-VMS-To: IN%"INFO-VAX@KL.SRI.COM" >I think that the trouble is that SDL, which is used to create the definitions >for MACRO and BLISS, has never been completely extended to support other >languages. Actually, SDL is used to generate the Fortran and Basic definitions. I guess I could agree that there not 'completely' integrated, but I don't think it's SDL's fault.. If you ever do an SDL/NOPARSE/DUMP on an SDL module (grab one out of STARARLETSD.TLB) you'll see that there's more than enough info there to create beautiful include files. It is the language developers choice as to how to use this info I guess. For some reason the C developers haven't writted an SDL module yet, which is a shame.. Which brings me to the next subject, has anybody tried to write a program to either read the binary SDL files, or interface with the SDL program like the BASIC and FORTRAN developers have done? If anybody know what I am talking about, and has any ideas on the subject, please get in touch with me, I think that will be my next project.. i.e. Given the following command procedure: $ Library/Ext='p1 Sys$Library:Starletsd.Tlb/out='p1'.sdi $ Define/nolog Sdl$Share sdl$dir $ Define/nolog SdlFortra sdl$dir:Sdlfortra.Exe $ SDL/NoParse/Lang=(Fortra='p2') 'p1'.sdi I would like to replace the SDLFORTRA.EXE image with my own.. (Note that SDLFORTRA.EXE is included in the Fortran distribution, but not saved after the installation) >Bottom line: DEC, please extend SDL to *all* supported languages, or find >some other way to allow us to build tools in the language best suited to >the task. (Maybe extend CDD?) Perhaps documenting either the file format or the format of the routine that gets called via SDL/Noparse/LANG=() would be enough. Of course, DEC would probably prefer to make money by selling SDL as a separate product.. Of course, another drawback to all of this is that only the modules from STARLET are included in the VMS distribution, I'd like to see the LIB modules as well.. Cheers, Joe Meadows joe@fhcrcvax.bitnet