| Title: | -={ H A C K E R S }=- |
| Notice: | Write locked - see NOTED::HACKERS |
| Moderator: | DIEHRD::MORRIS |
| Created: | Thu Feb 20 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Aug 03 1992 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 680 |
| Total number of notes: | 5456 |
There once was a tool called ASK.EXE written in macro by some DECUS folks that
was similar to an INQUIRE but provided a Timeout value to be passed. Now I
know tha READ/TIMEOUT as of Ver 4.4 would replace the need for ASK in most
cases, but, the nice thing about ask is you could use it in your SYSTARTUP.COM
to prompt at OPA0: for input such as "Do you want to boot a Standalone System?"
This was quite useful. However, my copy of ASK.MAR will not link properly
since ver 4.4 or 4.5 and my macro experience is weak.
Anyone know of the whereabouts of ASK today or a similar tool?
p.s. READ does not work from within SYSTARTUP since SYS$COMMAND cannot be
reassigned from a detached process. Makes sense.
Thanx... Paul
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 597.1 | SW Tools | IND::DAVIS | Ray Davis | Thu Nov 12 1987 18:18 | 2 |
It's in the software tools catalog, available thru VTX or
thru NOTES on METOO::SW_TOOLS_CATALOG. (Press KP7, I hope.)
| |||||
| 597.2 | Open console first | SCANF::DIAMOND | Rubbing the snow globe | Mon Nov 16 1987 21:06 | 14 |
.0> the nice thing about ask is you could use it in your SYSTARTUP.COM to .0> prompt at OPA0: for input such as "Do you want to boot a Standalone .0> System?" This was quite useful. .0> p.s. READ does not work from within SYSTARTUP since SYS$COMMAND cannot .0> be reassigned from a detached process. Makes sense. How about this? $ open/read/error=DEFAULT console OPA0: $ read/error=ERROR/time_out=120/prompt="XXXX? " console string $ close console Dave | |||||
| 597.3 | READ SYS$OUTPUT | DYO780::MOYER | Well! Isn't that *SPE*chul! | Wed Dec 16 1987 14:59 | 18 |
I had to do this at a customer site where they wanted to control
whether-or-not the batch queues were started at system startup time.
All I did was:
$ READ /TIME_OUT=seconds /END=eof_label /ERROR=error_label -
SYS$OUTPUT what_i_want_to_do
Please note that SYS$OUTPUT (for that matter, SYS$INPUT) is ALWAYS
open, so you don't *have* to do an explicit OPEN and CLOSE around
the READ statement. (You can if you'd like, but it's just a waste
of CPU ticks.)
I've done the READ SYS$OUTPUT thing in many different areas. Yes,
it may be alittle bit abnormal to be reading from an output device,
but it saves having to re-define where you're reading from.
Mark
| |||||
| 597.4 | TUBORG::GROSSMAN | Expectation invites disappointment | Sun Dec 20 1987 16:07 | 10 | |
My big grip about READ/TIMEOUT (I've got it to work from SYSTARTUP
before as well) is that DCL does not return anything received if
the read does indeed timeout. Normally if one did a $QIO with the
modifier IO$M_TIMED then whatever the user had typed before the
read timed out would be found in our receive buffer. This is not
so with the DCL READ/TIMEOUT.
- Russ -
| |||||