From: Brian Tillman [tillman_brian@cpmx.mail.saic.com] Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 2:15 PM To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com Subject: Re: VMS Session Using Exceed >Hi, I can connect to my VMS host using Reflections but I would prefer to >use Exceed if possible. >Has anyone done this ? Specifically I'm interested in the connect >command. I wrote a command procedure called EXCEED.COM that will let people run just about any VMS X Window app using eXceed. Below my .sig is the README file for that command procedure. -- Brian Tillman Internet: tillman_brian at si.com Smiths Industries, Inc. tillman at swdev.si.com 3290 Patterson Ave. SE, MS Addresses modified to prevent Grand Rapids, MI 49512-1991 SPAM. Replace "at" with "@" This opinion doesn't represent that of my company How to open a window on the VMS systems using eXceed Many people with PCs on their desks still require the ability to connect to the Engineering VMScluster for some of their work. The eXceed package from Hummingbird Communications allows PCs to act as X Window display servers so that you can pop up a terminal window, a CMS window, an LSEDIT window, or just about any other VMS tool on a PC's screen. If you have the HCL eXceed package on your PC, here's how you use it. In the following, the client is the program you wish to run, such as LSEDIT or CMS. 1) Choose Xstart from the eXceed group. If your PC is running Windows or Windows for Workgroups, this will be a program group in your Program Manager. If your PC is running Windows 95 or Windows NT, this will be an item named "exceed" in your Start/Programs menu. 2) When the window appears, decide which VMS system is to receive the client request. This is not related to the VMS system where your window client will run. This selection only chooses the VMS system that will receive the request for a client from your PC. Any system in the SWDEV or DUAL VMSclusters can be chosen to run the client. More on this later. The systems you can select for receiving your connection are AGVAX, ANTRIM, ARENAC, BARRY, BENZIE, BORUTA, BUSH, CHAMPL, CRAMER, EMMORE, FREI, FSAS, HELZER, HURON, IONIA, KOSTER, LAKE, MCGOOK, MIHEVE, MILSW2, OLUNDD, OLUNDJ, REGAN, RYBICK, SYKES, TERWED, VANDEN, WARD, WEAVER, WILLIA, WOLTER, and ZEQOLL in the SWDEV VMScluster, and CASS, DUAL1, DUAL2, DUAL3, IL96, KING2, and QUEEN2 in the DUAL VMScluster. Place the name of your choice in the text widget labeled "Host". While it should not be necessary, it is a good idea to add ".si.com" after the host name (i.e., "agvax.si.com"). 3) Choose one of the following Start Methods: A) Select REXEC for connecting to any VMS system. B) Select RSH for connecting to any VMS system. - For AGVAX and BENZIE, RSH requires presence of a .RHOSTS file in your VMS login directory. You can create this file yourself by logging into any SWDEV VMScluster system with a terminal emulation program and then using any editor or the CREATE command to create it. This file should contain one line with the Internet address of your PC starting in column one, like this: mypc.si.com where "mypc" is your PC's host name. If you do not know your PC's host name, contact the Help Desk at x7700. - For all other VMS systems, RSH requires the presence of a proxy record for you and your PC in a system database. A VMS system manager will need to do this, so if you plan to use one of these systems in the "Host" text widget, contact the Help Desk at x7700. They'll arrange to get your proxy added. 4) For REXEC starts, enter your VMS username for the selected host in the text widget labeled "User ID" and your VMS password for that system in the text widget labeled "Password". For RSH starts, enter your VMS username for the selected host in the text widget labeled "User ID". You do not need a password. 5) If your Xstart window has a text widget labeled "Host Type", click on the arrow at the right end of this widget and select "DEC VMS". 6) Enter the eXceed launch command into the text widget labeled "Command". The launch command must look like the following: @@DECW_COM:EXCEED @A clienthost client [parameters] where "clienthost" is the name of the VMS system on which you want your window client (the program you want) to run, "client" is a keyword specifying the client program you want or the name of the client program, and "parameters" are optional parameters that some clients may need. The brackets in the above indicate that the parameters don't always have to be there. Don't include brackets if you do specify parameters. Rather, enclose the parameters in quotes ("). The client host can be almost any VMS system, as long as it is running the DECwindows product and, if the host in the "Host" widget differs from the client host, provided you have a DECnet proxy to an account on the client host system. If you do not have DECnet proxy access between the system in the "Host" widget and the system in the command line, or if you do not know if you have a DECnet proxy between the two systems, contact the Help Desk to arrange a proxy. YOU DO NOT NEED A PROXY IF THE "HOST" SYSTEM AND THE HOST IN THE COMMAND LINE ARE THE SAME SYSTEM. The "client" keywords and their meanings are as follows: CALENDAR - run the DECwindows Calendar program CMS - run DECwindows CMS DCL - execute an arbitrary DCL command. Note, however, that it must be a DECwindows process or, if you specify a command; procedure, it must eventually be a DECwindows process. Choosing "SHOW SYMBOL" or "DIRECTORY", for example, has no meaning. DECTERM - create a DECterm window EVE - run DECwindows EVE/TPU FILEVIEW - run the FileView program LSEDIT - run DECwindows Language Sensitive Editor MAIL - run DECwindows Mail SESSION - start the DECwindows Session Manager. This will make your PC act as a X terminal and give you a complete VMS session from which you can launch any of the DECwindows applications you have defined in the Session Manager menus. If you specify the keywords "DCL", "DECTERM", "EVE", or "LSEDIT", you can specify optional parameters, as mentioned above. For the "DCL" keyword, the parameters are the DCL command to be executed. For the "DECTERM" keyword, the parameters are any qualifiers valid for the CREATE/TERMINAL command (if you don't know what these are, then you're better off not using the parameters). For the "EVE" and "LSEDIT" keywords, the optional parameter is a VMS file specification. If you specify anything other than one of the above keywords, the client is assumed to be the name of a program that will create a window, such as the DECwindows Clock. However, running arbitrary X client programs in this fashion isn't recommended unless you know just what you're doing. Any VMS system manager will be glad to help. If there is any client you wish to regularly run that isn't covered by one of the above keywords, it can be added. 7) Enter a description of your X connection in the text widget labeled "Description". This step isn't necessary at all, but it will give a name to your Xstart icon if you decide to save the settings and install the Xstart in a program group. 8) Click on "Run!". This will launch your window request. It may take a little while (up to two or three minutes, but usually not that long) for the window to pop up, so be patient. 9) You may wish to save the settings you've chosen. If so, pull down the "File" menu and choose "Save As...". This will pop up a dialogue box that will allow you to specify a name for your settings and save them to disk. 10) You may wish to create a separate icon for these settings. If so, click on the "Install..." menu item. This will pop up a dialogue box that will allow you to specify the name of the group into which to insert your settings as an icon. You can also choose what the icon will be from a list of several. Once you have installed the settings, you'll be able to simply double click on the icon to launch the window client. For Windows 95 and Windows NT, the icon can also be placed on the PC desktop screen.