Everhart,Glenn
From:	John Powers [john.powers@blackwell.co.uk]
Sent:	Tuesday, April 14, 1998 6:57 AM
To:	Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject:	RE: PIPE instructions to put one line into a symbol?
From mathog@seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu
..

> I've frequently needed to place some information into a symbol, and in
> DCL had to do it by directing output to a file, then reading it back
> record by record, then storing the record into a symbol for future 
> processing.  Example, put the SHO SYSTEM line for a process named MSAF
> into a symbol called MSAF_STATUS.  I can half way do this with PIPE, and 
> have it jump out after finding the first one, via:

A few years ago I wrote a system called SYMFILE which does precisely
this.  I finally got it working a few days before DEC announced the
new version of VMS with pipes in!  However, as I have never managed
to do quite what I wanted with pipes, I have continued to develop
SYMFILE as a useful symbol-creator.  You are welcome to try it out.
I sent a copy to Glenn Everhart to put on the DECUS library tapes.
If you're not in DECUS, you can pick it up from the Blackwells FTP
site.
  Anonymous FTP to   FTP.BLACKWELL.CO.UK
  and pick up        ANONYMOUS_ROOT:[VMS]SYMFILE.ZIP

**Warning**
  There is one big gotcha with this product. It does not (yet) work
  on Alpha - only on the older VAX systems.  Our company scrapped
  its Alpha VMS investment in the rush to worship at the altar of
  BGInc., before I managed to get it working. I am leaving soon for
  a job with more intelligent management soon, so I hope to be able
  to restart work on it, to make it alpha-compliant.  In the mean
  while - sorry its Vax-only.

As a description of it - here is the front of the help file..

 SYMFILE is a package that can be used to redirect any output from DCL
 or from any program, directly into symbols in the user's process. Any
 output can be redirected to SYMFILE,  and for every line of output, a
 symbol will be created of the form  <PREFIX><NUMBER>,  where <PREFIX>
 is a user-defined prefix,  and <NUMBER> is a running count of all the
 symbols created.  When the output closes, another symbol gets created
 containing a count of the symbols created.  The prefix, the format of
 the number, and the name of the count symbol  can be changed with the
 FAOSTR and COUNT qualifiers, or the PREFIX qualifier.

 If output from a program needs to be manipulated in DCL,  this can be
 used as a short-cut,  to save the need of redirecting the output to a
 temporary file,  reading through this file creating the symbols, then
 closing and deleting the temporary file.


- Cheers, John
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