> "We" ???? Shouldn't this be "I" ????  :-)

> > If the symbol DCL$CTRLT is defined DCL will append it's contents to
> > the traditional CTRL-T output. It allows users to use CTRL-T for their

> Neat trick. However, I tried this on my all mighty microvax II (VMS 7.2)
and
> it doesn't work as documented. The "We" must learn to be better santas to
> deliver those improvements to existing systems faster (without customers
> realising someone has penetrated their systems to replace DCL.EXE, of
course)
> :-) :-) :-)

> Remember that SANTA gets to deliver goodies inside people's homes without
> trigerring any alarms around the world in 24 hours. Shirley you can
deliver
> little gifts to those 400k systems in less time ? :-)

> Also, personally, I would have prefered to see the text added on the same
line
> if it fits within 80 characters. Would have made for cleaner output.

> If the symbol DCL$CTRLT is defined DCL will append it's contents to

> the traditional CTRL-T output. It allows users to use CTRL-T for their

> will ship with the first version after V8.2. However, if the response is

> positive enough, I'll consider backporting it to V7.3-2 or V8.2

> Guy Peleg

> OpenVMS Engineering

> If the symbol DCL$CTRLT is defined DCL will append it's contents to

> the traditional CTRL-T output. It allows users to use CTRL-T for their

> own needs in their applications. It may also be used for debugging

> user/supervisor mode code.

> Here is a simple DCL procedure using the new feature

> IPL31> ty ctrlt_loop.com

> $ inner=0

> $ outer=0

> $ loop:

> $ loop1:

> $ if inner .gt. 20000 then goto end_loop1

> $ inner=inner+1

> $ dcl$ctrlt=F$FAO("Inner loop count is !SL !/ Outer loop count is
> !SL",inner,outer)

> $ goto loop1

> $ end_loop1:

> $ inner=0

> $ outer=outer+1

> $ goto loop

> IPL31> @ctrlt_loop

> IPL31::GUY 10:46:37 (DCL) CPU=00:03:42.68 PF=13453 IO=6743 MEM=187

> Inner loop count is 12306

> Outer loop count is 0

> IPL31::GUY 10:46:43 (DCL) CPU=00:03:49.19 PF=13455 IO=6744 MEM=187

> Inner loop count is 19200

> Outer loop count is 2

> Here is a simple C program utilizing the new feature

> IPL31> ty ctrlt_looper.c

> #include <descrip>

> void main()

> {

> int counter=0;

> $DESCRIPTOR(sym_name,"dcl$ctrlt");

> static struct dsc$descriptor_s value_desc;

> char buffer[256]={0};

> value_desc.dsc$b_dtype = DSC$K_DTYPE_T;

> value_desc.dsc$b_class = DSC$K_CLASS_S;

> while (1){

> counter++;

> sprintf(buffer,"Counter is %d",counter);

> value_desc.dsc$a_pointer = buffer;

> value_desc.dsc$w_length = strlen(buffer);

> lib$set_symbol(&sym_name,&value_desc);

> }

> }

> IPL31> r ctrlt_looper

> IPL31::GUY 10:47:27 CTRLT_LOO CPU=00:03:53.26 PF=13631 IO=6784 MEM=335

> Counter is 216766

> IPL31::GUY 10:47:28 CTRLT_LOO CPU=00:03:54.45 PF=13631 IO=6785 MEM=335

> Counter is 338429

> The DCL$CTRLT symbol may have different values in different procedure
levels

> which I find useful as well.

> What do you think? unfortunately we missed the V8.2 train so this

> will ship with the first version after V8.2. However, if the response is

> positive enough, I'll consider backporting it to V7.3-2 or V8.2

> Guy Peleg

> OpenVMS Engineering

>While I'm all for any and all new functionality, I'm a bit confused on this.
>At least, from a 3GL point of view, what does this give you that an
>out-of-band CTRL/T AST doesn't? Admittedly DCL is a bit harder; but I
>remember at least one example in the old VAX Professional (Oooohh, remember
>those!) of a Terminate and Stay Resident job that would do the DCL bits.

>Anyway, well done. But sadly it would appear that after the 8.2 workload,
>VMS engineering now has some fat that could be trimmed. It's a shame, as I
>certainly have some functionality that I'd like to see go in ahead of this.

>Regards Richard Maher.

>While I'm all for any and all new functionality, I'm a bit confused on this.
>At least, from a 3GL point of view, what does this give you that an
>out-of-band CTRL/T AST doesn't? Admittedly DCL is a bit harder; but I
>remember at least one example in the old VAX Professional (Oooohh, remember
>those!) of a Terminate and Stay Resident job that would do the DCL bits.

>Anyway, well done. But sadly it would appear that after the 8.2 workload,
>VMS engineering now has some fat that could be trimmed. It's a shame, as I
>certainly have some functionality that I'd like to see go in ahead of this.

> If the symbol DCL$CTRLT is defined DCL will append it's contents to
> the traditional CTRL-T output. It allows users to use CTRL-T for
their
> own needs in their applications. It may also be used for debugging
> user/supervisor mode code.

> It is always surprising to see how people use our features.

> Thank you for your valuable feedback. Keep it coming

> Guy

> All people responded suggested they would benefit using
> this in debugging situations. I might say that I was a little
> surprised. While this makes a great debugging tool it may
> also use in your applications to indicate some kind of progress.
> Assuming I'm calculating the largest prime number, I might
> define the symbol (in the application) to indicate what is the
> current number being processed (maybe update the symbol
> only every 50000 loop iteration)....

> It is always surprising to see how people use our features.

> Thank you for your valuable feedback. Keep it coming