🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec14.223000.964@cmkrnl.com>, jeh@cmkrnl.com writes:
> In article <1992Dec14.085555.5895@ais.com>, bruce@ais.com (Bruce C. Wright)
>  writes:
>>> #Can anyone out there tell me if it is possible to write my own lexical
>>> #functions, and how?
>>> [...]
>>                 4. Get a copy of the source to DCL and hack it in
>> 		   yourself.
>> 
>> This is an EXPEN$IVE solution and DEC keeps changing the exact
>> requirements for doing this legally.
> 
> I must protest.  Listings for nearly all of VMS, plus all of the utilities
> that ship with it, can be purchased on CD-ROM for about $2200, and the legal
> requirements (you need to sign a source license agreement) haven't changed
> since this offering was introduced many years ago.
> 
> No, you don't get compilable source for this price.  But you certainly get 
> enough information to help you add things to the system. 

But if you're changing something like DCL, to do something like add new
lexical functions, I think you'll _need_ the compilable sources -- it's
not like writing something that interfaces with some of the internals,
you'll have to actually modify the sources and recompile the image.  The
listings are rather problematic for this purpose.

They _are_ very useful however, and in many (most?) cases you don't
really need compilable sources.  It's a good point that the listings
are not too outrageously priced and are fairly readily available, but
if I'm not mistaken the actual source kit is not only expensive, but
also subject to frequent policy changes by DEC.  As you note there is
a widespread misconception that the listings kit is also subject to the
same policy changes, a typical case of DEC's right hand not knowing
what the left hand is doing.

Bruce C. Wright