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...


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From:         Joe Meadows<JOE%FHCRCVAX.BITNET@oly.acs.washington.edu>
Subject:      RE: Re:  External definitions for SYS$, RTL$ etc...
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>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