SUMMARY - DCL to perl conversion

From: Simon Bosse <bosse_at_python.konbib.nl>
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 1998 09:12:40 +0200 (MET DST)

Thanks to:
H. Blakely Williford
Charles Bailey
Peter Prymmer
J.James(Jim)Belonis II

It seems that there is no ready to use script, but some of the answers
contained usefull beginnings.
By studying the scripts I came to the conclusion that it is probably
easier to rewrite them than to convert them.

Digital offers also a page with hints and tips:
http://www.unix.digital.com/products/interop/vms_unix/html/index.htm
(chapter 3).

Here's the separate answers:
=========================================================================
> we are converting from a vax/vms system to a DU system. Does anyone know
> of scripts to convert DCL programs/scripts to perl scripts (or shell
> scripts).
>

Seems like there was (at one time) somthing called "Sector 7".

--
H. Blakely Williford            | Men never do evil so completely &
cheerfully
Systems Programer/Administrator | as when they do it with religious
conviction.
The Fuller Brush Company        |                               - Blaise
Pascal
=========================================================================
Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi_at_iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> I am aware of the fact that you may not necessarily empathize with
> Simon's task :-) but if you know of any such attempt...
Well, yes, it is in the wrong directon . . . :-)
I don't know of any working DCL-to-perl converters, though the idea's been
discussed a few times.  Most of the conversion would be pretty straightforward,
but emulating some of DCL's parsing behavior might be tricky.  Jerome Lauret
did make a stab at Perl equivalents for some of the DCL lexicals; I can't
recall where it lives just now, but I think there's reference to it in the
VMSPerl list archives.
If you have specific questions, feel free to give a holler.
Regards,
Charles Bailey  bailey_at_newman.upenn.edu
==============================================================================
Jerome Lauret's Lexical.pm is at:
 http://nucwww.chem.sunysb.edu/public/vms/lexical.html
!If you have specific questions, feel free to give a holler.
The general idea involves substitutions such as:
    s/^(\s*)\$/$1/;   # remove leading dollar signs from DCL
    s/IF/if/i;        # IF -> if (DCL is case insensitive)
    s/THEN/{/i;       # begin perl block (DCL is case insensitive)
    s/ENDIF/}/i;      # end perl block (DCL is case insensitive)
    s/CALL|GOSUB/&/i; 
    s/\_at_/system(\_at_/i; # sort of
adding the requisite perl $ and/or _at_ signs for variables back in is a 
bit trickier.  Another problem that crops up is DCL's case 
insensitivity regarding variable names - hence you may wish to pass 
through a script a few times to regularize the case of certain 
/\b\w\b/ words.  (I usually wind up doing some of the above 
under perl -pi -e then finishing the whole thing by hand :-).
Good luck.
Peter Prymmer
Peter Prymmer <pvhp_at_forte.com>
==============================================================================
No.  But you might be interested in a perl script we have to convert
VMS mail folders to unix mail folders.
-- 
J.James(Jim)Belonis II, U of Washington Physics Computer Cost Center Manager
belonis_at_phys.washington.edu Internet    University of Washington Physics Dept. 
http://www.phys.washington.edu/~belonis r. B234 Physics Astronomy Building
1pm to midnite 7 days  (206) 685-8695   Box 351560      Seattle, WA 98195-1560
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Received on Wed Apr 08 1998 - 09:13:50 NZST