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From: ok@quintus.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Command interfaces
Message-ID: <436@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 5-Dec-87 01:10:09 EST
Article-I.D.: cresswel.436
Posted: Sat Dec  5 01:10:09 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Dec-87 06:33:17 EST
References: <1257@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <6840002@hpcllmv.HP.COM> <9555@mimsy.UUCP> <802@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 34
Summary: misunderstanding

In article <432@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> I said of the **TOPS-10**
command line parser SCAN/WILD that
1> The snag was that
1> ordinary programmers never heard about it (the system calls
1> manual didn't mention it because it wasn't a system call,
In article <802@rocky.STANFORD.EDU>, andy@rocky.STANFORD.EDU
(Andy Freeman) said
2> The TOPS-20 command parser I referred to is the COMND% system call.
2> It's in the JSYS manual with every other system call.
I was talking about TOPS-10 at that point, not TOPS-20, as I think the
text made clear.  I tried for two years to get a copy of the SCAN/WILD
documentation for TOPS-10.  (This was several years ago.)

By the way, there IS a UNIX library package for parsing command lines
(*after* file-name expansion has been done by the shell).
It's called getopt.  There is a getopt(3) for C programs to call, and
a getopt(1) for sh scripts to call.  This is a System V feature, but
the version I use is a public-domain version written by Henry Spencer
and sent to net.sources in 1984.  "man -k option" or "man -k command"
will tell you about it.  System V release 3 has a souped-up version
called getopts().

I last used TOPS-20 about 4 years ago.  I must say that I very much liked
the command interface:  I accessed the machine infrequently over a slow
network and didn't have any TOPS-20 manuals.  Being forced to stay a novice,
I was *very* pleased with the prompts, completion &c.  But typing  at
a program that wasn't expecting it wasn't always a good idea...

VMS and TOPS-20 have a number of similarities:  a comparison from someone
who has used both a lot would be illuminating.

---------------------------------------------------
Timesharing (n): an access method whereby one computer uses many people.
			--- IBM definition.