From: David J. Dachtera [djesys.nospam@fsi.net]
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 10:42 PM
To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject: Followup Re: creating a mailbox in DCL

"David J. Dachtera" wrote:
> 
> Jakob Erber wrote:
> >
> > Hi there DCL Gurus,
> >
> > is there a way to create a Mailbox in DCL?
> > So far, we found a possibility in snatching the termination mailbox of the
> > spawned subprocess. But isn't there a more straight forward way?
> 
> Take a look at:
> 
> http://www.djesys.com/freeware/vms/crembx.zip
> 
> This contains a VAX (DEC) BASIC program to create a permanent mailbox,
> and a matching perversion of a CREATE.CLD (V5.5-2) for an example of how
> to add a /MAILBOX qualifier to the CREATE command.
> 
> See http://www.djesys.com/vms/freevms/mentor/dcl_cmd.html to view this
> information on-line.
> 
> I had an old CompuServe VAX Forum submission called VMSPIPE.TLB (I
> think). I just got done burning a bunch of my old diskettes to CD-R.
> I'll see if I can find that and put it up in my freeware area. It
> includes a "CREMBX" program and DELMBX program in both BASIC and
> Macro32, as well as edited .CLDs for CREATE and DELETE to add /MAILBOX
> functionality.

You can now find this at http://www.djesys.com/freeware/vms/vmspipe.zip

There's full source and .OBJs for VAX, but not for Alpha. 

I never had to use this on Alpha, and haven't re-installed BASIC on my
home Alpha since I recovered from the system disk failure. It was used
in it's day on a good size VAX, however, to allow for converting 8mm
"dd" tapes to ANSI-labelled magtapes for an IBM mainframe. The
"pipeline" was COPY (from 8mm tape) -> Deblocker(MBX1) ->
ASCII-to-EBCDIC(MBX2) -> CONVERT/FDL(MBX3) to 9-track. The "pipeline"
allowed that the data didn't have to first be copied down to disk and
massaged multiple times before being written out to 9-track. *MUCH*
faster that way!

I'll try to make time to re-install BASIC and make Alpha .OBJs for
CREMBX and DELMBX to go with the .CLDs and .HLP segments. Obviously,
development of this stopped at VMS V6.1, so ...

Another of my VMS wish-list items would be to have this (CREATE/MAILBOX
and DELETE/MAILBOX) developed by OVMS Engr. as part of the base product,
if it's not already there.

By the way, if anyone knows how to fix the compile-time errors in the
.MAR files, I'd be grateful for a pointer or two...

-- 
David J. Dachtera
dba DJE Systems
http://www.djesys.com/

Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page:
http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/