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Diffstat (limited to 'VMSNOTES')
-rw-r--r-- | VMSNOTES | 70 |
1 files changed, 70 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/VMSNOTES b/VMSNOTES new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..ad7cbd780c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/VMSNOTES @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +See the file VMSINSTALL for VMS installation information. + +* Deficiencies of VMS GNU Emacs + +All GNU Emacs features which on Unix work by running a Unix utility +in a subprocess currently do not work on VMS. + +These include reading and sending mail, reading and posting netnews, +spelling correction, displaying the time and load in the mode line, +and the `sort-columns' command. (dired and sending output to printers +don't work in version 18, but will in version 19.) Naturally, the +commands to view Unix manual pages and execute Unix shell commands +also do not work. + +It is not possible to fix these problems in a general way on VMS +because they involve interfaces to parts of the operating system which +work very differently on VMS. Each feature must be reimplemented +individually. + +I hope that someone will send me an implementation for directory listing +on VMS. This should not be very hard to do. Most of the code you need +is already provided in [.src]dired.c. + +The normal commands for running an inferior shell or lisp with I/O +through an Emacs buffer do not work on VMS in Emacs version 18, but +will work in version 19. For the meanwhile, you can create a DCL +subprocess which does I/O through an Emacs buffer and get a similar +effect. See the file [.lisp]vms-patch.el. + +* Specifying terminal type. + +To specify a terminal type for Emacs that is not known to VMS, +define the logical name EMACS_TERM with the terminal type as value. +Terminal types are looked up in the termcap data base, which is +found as the file `[etc]termcap.dat' in the Emacs distribution. + +* Specifying file names. + +GNU Emacs accepts both Unix and VMS file name syntax. Most Lisp +code that runs in Emacs uses Unix syntax so it can run everywhere. +Users on VMS will generally type file names with VMS syntax. + +The EMACSLOADPATH logical name, if you use it, should contain +directory names in Unix syntax, separated by commas. + +find-file prompts with the current directory. You can then type a +relative directory spec to get somewhere else in the hirearchy. For +instance: + +Find File: emacs_library:[src][-.lisp]startup.el + +is converted to emacs_library:[lisp]startup.el by +expand-file-name. The basic rule is: +][- is treated like /.. (dir:[file.sub][-.other] ==> dir:[file.other], + dir:[file.sub][-] ==> dir:[file]) +][. elides the ][ (dir:[file][.sub] ==> dir:[file.sub]) +][alpha backs up to the previous [ (dir:[file][other] ==> dir:[other]) +a colon appearing after a ] forces a new "root" disk. + (dev:[file]dev2:[other] ==> dev2:[other]) +expand-file-name also tries to be smart about decnet node names, +but this is not yet known to work. + +* A possible problem. + +For VMS versions 4.4 and up, make sure the file +SYS$SYSTEM:RIGHTSLIST.DAT has WORLD:R access. Emacs reads this file +to check file access. If this file does not have appropriate access, +Emacs may think that you cannot write any files. + + |