VMS text files?!

[hopp at nbs-amrf.UUCP]

>From:  Hobbit <AWalker at RUTGERS.ARPA>
>
>Last I heard, Files-11 sequential format is character stream with records
>terminated by CR.  This is made very clear in the RMS bible.  I don't even
>know if RMS *supports* counted records at all.... who ever gave you that idea?
>
>_H*

Oh, I got it from a file dump.  Seriously, you must have a very poor
translation of the bible.  According to my copy of the VAX-11 RMS
Reference Manual (for VMS 3.0, Document AA-D031D-TE, page B-2), VAX-11
RMS provides three different record formats: fixed-length,
variable-length, and stream.  Stream record formats, what you have
described, come in three flavors, based on what characters terminate a
record; there can be either CR, LF, or [FF,VT,LF,CR/LF] terminators.
Stream records are supported only for sequentially organized disk
files.  Fixed-length records are terminated implicitly by the record
length, and are supported by all file organizations.  Variable-length
records come in two flavors and two major variants.  The two flavors
are both counted records; one, for use with disk files, has a two-byte
binary count field and the other, for use with tape files, has a
four-byte ascii (decimal) count field.  The two major variants parallel
these, but also include a fixed-length control field in each record.
The variable-length with fixed-length control formats are not supported
for indexed files.
-- 

Ted Hopp		      UUCP: {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!nbs-amrf!hopp
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