Steve will probably answer Jim's question shortly;  maybe he
already has and I missed it in the blizzard or whatever;  in
case not:

> Steve Dirickson <[log in to unmask]> sideswipes:
>
> > Reminder for sites using this technique: if you also use
> > DICTIONARY/V (if you don't: why not??)
>
> So, Steve, enlighten me/us...how and why would I want to use
> DICTIONARY/V?  Is it free?  If not, how much?  That "V"
> bothers me. Is it from MPE/V?  I recall using something like
> that way back on a Micro 37, but that was so long ago, the
> memories are shrouded in fog....

First:  I believe it has officially been "DICTIONARY/3000" for
several years now.   :-)

How and why:  To store item, file, and database definitions in
a common central repository (ugh !!...  after all these years still
don't like that description);  instead of having to define them in
100 different programs / places (and by so doing inevitably end
up with *different* definitions for the same things).  COBOL and
TRANSACT can use it directly....

Not free;  but relatively low cost (no time to look up prices now;
in theory they should (right ??) be on the web with other 3000
info)...

Like a long list of subsystems, DICT/3000 started on MPE/V...
BUT:   The operational Dictionary repository itself is just
another standard TurboIMAGE database.  The utility programs
that operate on that DICT database are CM....  but for what they
do and how long it takes to do it, for practical purposes that
doesn't matter as far as anything we have ever done.

With all the talk about eventually getting to a common, "modern"
data repository for the last...  what ??....  12 years, DICT/3000
still does what it does very well;  within the confines of the
current design....  I haven't seen anything better (System
Dictionary was one of the highly touted products at Interex -
Orlando in 1988;  it fairly quickly faded away and is no longer
recommended by HP unless you are doing something that it
can do that DICT/3000 cannot (and I don't recall off the top
what that is) ).

Ken Sletten