Re:

> I'm forwarding the following possible enhancement to Steve Zink. He can be
>
> >I would like to have two XLs linked to every program running on an HP3000
> >without using Linkedit to do it. So that these XLs become the default
> linking along
> >with  XL.PUB.SYS and NL.PUB.SYS which never have to be specified either. If

I'd restate this, perhaps as:

  Today:

     Programs linked without a specific "XL=" statement, and RUN without
     a specific "XL=" statement can be thought of as having an
     implied "XL=XL.PUB.SYS,NL.PUB.SYS" XL list.

     Programs linked with a specific "XL=" statement, or RUN with
     a specific "XL=" statement can be thought of as having an implied
     "XL=<whatever I asked for>, XL.PUB.SYS, NL.PUB.SYS" XL list.

     In either of the above cases, if the user specified XL list ends in
     "NL.PUB.SYS" and does *NOT* contain "XL.PUB.SYS", then XL.PUB.SYS
     will *not* be used. (Yes, it is possible to bypass XL.PUB.SYS!)

  Request:

      Change the first "NL.PUB.SYS" in the above description to
      "default_NL_list".

      Change the "XL.PUB.SYS" in the above description to
      "default_XL_list".

      Provide a means for changing default_NL_list and default_XL_list,
      perhaps via SYSGEN.  The default values are "NL.PUB.SYS" and
      "XL.PUB.SYS" respectively.  SYSGEN (or whatever) would check and
      enforce that default_NL_list always ends with NL.PUB.SYS.

      When loading a program, replace any "XL.PUB.SYS" in the XL list
      with the value of default_XL_list, and replace any "NL.PUB.SYS"
      in the XL list with the value of default_NL_list prior to
      processing the list of XLs.

This would answer the original need Steve has, would be very flexible
(and powerful!), and wouldn't sacrifice the ability to run without
XL.PUB.SYS (which is sometimes useful).

Note: one implication is that no old program would have to be relinked
or have their XL list changed!

I can see the need, however, to add some intelligence in the loader
to allow some form of bypassing the new "system-wide" XLs if necessary.
For example, RUN foo; XL="#NL.PUB.SYS" (or some such), which would
mean "don't do the default_NL_list substitution".

The second addition would be to add a third new item: default_SL_list,
which initially defaults to "SL.PUB.SYS". ... and is defined as the set
of SLs searched after any PUB/GROUP SL is searched.

--
Stan Sieler                                          [log in to unmask]
                                     http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html