[continued from previous message]   
      
   >           end else if index(finfo_list[i].filter_list[j], 'fb') = 1   
   then   
   > begin   
   >              write(' fb');   
   >              cli$get_value('B1', b1.body, b1.length);   
   >              write(' b1=', b1);   
   >              cli$get_value('B2', b2.body, b2.length);   
   >              write(' b2=', b2);   
   >              cli$get_value('X', x.body, x.length);   
   >              write(' x=', x);   
   >           end else begin   
   >              halt;   
   >           end;   
   >        end;   
   >        writeln;   
   >     end;   
   > end.   
   > $ set comm/obj fun5sup   
   > $ pas fun5   
   > $ lin fun5 + fun5sup   
   > $ set comm fun5   
   > $ fun5 f1.dat/filter=("fa /a1=12 /a2:34 /x=1234","fb /b1=56 /b2=78 /   
   > x=5678"),-   
   >         f2.dat/filter=("fb /b2=87 /b1:65 /x:8765","fa /a2=43 /a1=21 /   
   > x=4321")   
   > f1.dat fa a1=12 a2=34 x=1234 fb b1=56 b2=78 x=5678   
   > f2.dat fb b1=65 b2=87 x=8765 fa a1=21 a2=43 x=4321   
      
   Way back when an Alpha workstation was my desktop, it had a good   
   graphics card and a sound card.  During this time I got mplayer running   
   on VMS and was even able to use it to play DVDs.  Sadly, subsequent to   
   that time, itanium was too noisy for a desktop and VMS on x86 has no   
   multimedia support.   
      
   On *nix, one's program can define any command syntax desired since the   
   command-line parsing is done entirely within the program.  The shell   
   doesn't really do anything except try to expand unquoted wildcards   
   (which somewhat limits the use of wildcards since the program cannot   
   differentiate between a source wildcard and a destination wildcard).  On   
   VMS, DCL can do it either way.  One can define a syntax that allows DCL   
   to do the parsing as Arne has shown, or one can tell DCL to simply pass   
   the command line to the program and let the program do all of the   
   parsing.  One advantage of the former is that if the command-line fails   
   to parse, the program never even has to be activated.   
      
   So, IMHO, DCL is superior in this regard.  The one thing I wish it had,   
   in regards to command-line parsing, was a setting that meant "set the   
   PIPE command as default".  I am one of those users who only has ODS-5   
   disks, always has parse_style set to extended, and all my utilities   
   still using *nix syntax use lib$initialize.   
      
   Mark Berryman   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)