From:	SMTP%"RELAY-INFO-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM" 29-NOV-1993 11:08:23.88
To:	EVERHART
CC:	
Subj:	re: $ SET COMMAND vs Foreign command.  A final note

Message-Id: <9311291409.AA16522@uu3.psi.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 93 08:05:56 EDT
From: Jerry Leichter <leichter@lrw.com>
To: INFO-VAX@SRI.COM
Subject: re: $ SET COMMAND vs Foreign command.  A final note

It's been pointed out that a program can be invoked through the foreign command
line interface, then do its own DCL parsing - so that "foreign command" does
not imply "non-DCL parsing" (though it *does* imply that parsing isn't done
before image startup).

A little known hack:  The converse is also true.  "Non-DCL parsing" does NOT
imply "foreign command line".  That is, it is possible to define a foreign
command in the DCL tables.  This was added for DSM (Digital Standard Mumps)
and the DSM verb is, as far as I know, the only standard verb defined this
way:

	define verb DSM
	   image DSM, cliflags(foreign)

Undocumented, unsupported, but works fine as of V5.2-1 of VMS.  (Can someone
with an Alpha check whether this little feature works there?)  If you're willing
to accept the unsupported/undocumented nature of this syntax, you can use it
to provide system-wide definitions of commands that invoke programs through the
foreign command interface, without having to fill your SYLOGIN.COM with symbol
definitions.
							-- Jerry