Well, after considerable research, arguing, and finally getting the right
HPRC people to communicate with the right CSY people (thanks, Jeff V!), it's
official: hpbin.sys programs *are* supported when run from the MPE CI as
well as from the posix shell.

The rest of the information in this post represents a summary of the
research I did on this issue, for the benefit of any of you who might
encounter similar problems with HPRC personnel refusing to support you on
the grounds that posix and ci don't mix.  The reference for my incident,
where this issue was extensively discussed, was A4579971.

The RC engineer working with me claimed that in the training he originally
received from CSY, it was a foregone conclusion that posix programs should
only be run within the posix shell.  We never did exactly identify the
source of this misinformation, and I never found any document which
explicitly stated that such use of posix utilities was unsupported.

In fact, the documents I found clearly indicate that this functionality
*has* been supported at least since 1993:

------------quoting from HP Electronic Support Center (ESC)
-------------------------Technical Knowledge Database (TKD)

Title       : How to call POSIX utilities from COBOL
Date        : 930514
Type        : EN
Document ID : A3226685

PROBLEM TEXT

I would like to use some of the new POSIX utilities in a Native Mode
COBOL program.  Is this possible?

DETAIL TEXT

MPE/iX, version B.45.00 (4.5) and later.

RESOLUTION TEXT

One of the major strengths of POSIX is the wealth of utilities that is
available.   Most of these utilities are actually just programs which
reside in the HPBIN.SYS directory.  They can be executed from the
command line, just like any other MPE program.

These utilities read the INFO string for their operating parameters.
By using the implied run facility of the CI, it is possible to execute
these POSIX utilities from the MPE command line, or through the
HPCICOMMAND intrinsic.

The following COBOL program is an example of calling the POSIX utility
TOBYTE, to convert an MPE file to a POSIX byte-stream file.

KEYWORDS LIST

Calling POSIX utilities

------------------------------------end ESC/TKD quote

I also found some other documents which are less explicit, but it is implied
by the context that running posix commands from CI is common practice.
These documents can be found as MVAN000224,
D500192724, and 4701263632.

Finally, I found a reference inside an HP manual which recommends adding
HPBIN.SYS to the HPPATH.  ( LaserROM search actually worked for once! ;> )

-------------------------------------------------------
HP Motif/iX Programmer's Supplement
HP Part No.  36394-90001
Chapter 5  User Interface Language and Motif Resource Manager
...
  UIL and MRM on MPE/iX
...
MPE/iX also has an implied RUN. You can invoke the compiler using the
implied RUN command.  First, set the search path so that the UIL compiler
will be found:

     :SETVAR HPPATH HPPATH + ',HPBIN.SYS'
-------------------------------------------------------

Bottom line:  somewhere in the early days of posix on MPE, there must have
been a *gross* miscommunication between CSY and HPRC, such that there
developed a sharp difference in understanding about the supportable uses of
the posix utilities.  It will probably take some time for the correction of
this misinformation to propagate throughout HP, but as customers we can at
least try to prevent the confusion from spreading any further.
________________________________________________________
Jon Diercks * Systems Manager         Computing Services
[log in to unmask] (PGP available)     Anderson University
http://rowlf.csv.anderson.edu/        1100 East Fifth St
(317)641-4305 * FAX (317)641-3851     Anderson, IN 46012