Hello Peter,
Thanks for getting back to me. Thank you for your suggestion – I have had a look but I think Tramp mode is not quite what I need, though I can see how it might appear to fit.
I too have not edited files on VMS for about 20 years, and even now that is not what I am seeking to do. It looks to me like Tramp will let me edit RMS files on a Vax provided I have a running Vax
to edit the files on. My actual situation is that I have been given a dump of a Vax disk, as Windows files. The flies appear to be binary copies so are in RMS format and so that is what I need to access, files on windows that are in RMS format. It looks
like Emacs has a system for handling Coding Systems that ought to be able to handle this – or to allow me to write my own handler, and that is what I am looking for information on.
And I have already written an application that can convert these files into conventional Windows format. I would like to be able to view the files without needing to convert them first.
I think I may need to ask on the Emacs development list.
Regards,
Richard,
From: Peter Milliken <peter.milliken@gmail.com>
Sent: 18 September 2021 05:26
To: Kerry, Richard <richard.kerry@atos.net>
Cc: help-emacs-windows@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Coding System handler to access Vax-VMS/OpenVMS/RMS text files from Windows Emacs
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Richard,
It's been 20 years since I last used Emacs on a Windows computer to edit files under VMS, but from memory, I used Tramp Mode (Transparent Remote Access Multiple Protocols), it handled all of that stuff transparently.
Does anyone know whether there is a Coding System handler available that will allow me to use Windows Emacs to view text files originating from a Vax system? Ie from a system running Vax/VS or
OpenVMS. The filing system in these is called RMS, which means it is difficult to successfully search for Emacs issues relating to it using that term.
I have established that text files on that system are not stored using a line terminator/separator character, like many other OSs tend to do (ie CR and/or LF chars). Instead it uses a system where
each line starts with two bytes representing its length.
My understanding that emacs uses a Coding System driver to interface between the underlying files and its string representation. I would expect that if there is a VMS implementation of Emacs (which
there is, or has been) then it would include this handling, however I have the files on a Windows PC so I need Windows Emacs to be able to access them.
Is there just an incantation that I need to enable it, or might I have to get into writing the driver myself?
Richard Kerry
BNCS Engineer, SI SOL Telco & Media Vertical Practice
M: +44 (0)7812 325518
2nd Floor, MidCity Place, 71 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6EA
richard.kerry@atos.net
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