From:	MERC::"uunet!CRVAX.SRI.COM!RELAY-INFO-VAX" 12-JUL-1992 00:59:02.49
To:	info-vax@cdclu1.genrad.com
CC:	
Subj:	Joe Meadows' UNSDL (or rather SDLNPARSE).

Last week I wanted to (re)create a C header file from starletsd.tlb so tried
using UNSDL. It steadfastly refused with the error ...

%SDL-E-INVSHRIMG, Shareable language image not found CC

So I decided something must have changed in VMS and pulled a new copy of UNSDL
off the net (from WKUVX1.BITNET, thanks Hunter). While I was about it, I also
pulled a copy of SYS$SYSTEM:SDLNPARSE from one of our nodes which is still
running VMS V4.7. This worked with the copy of UNSDL I already had so I thought
no more about it until today.

Today, I tried the 'newer' version of UNSDL. It turned out to be identical to
the version I already had, so still didn't work. So I did some investigating,
with SET WATCH FILE, and found that SDLNPARSE, V3.2-12 from the image header,
was now looking in SYS$SHARE for its shareable images. The older version,
V3.0-2, used SDL$SHARE.

Defining SYS$SHARE as SYS$DISK:[],SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSLIB] makes UNSDL work with
the newer SDLNPARSE. SDL$SHARE isn't needed any more. (I suppose the other
method would be to put SDLCC.EXE etc. into [SYSLIB]).

I just though I'd post this for any programmers using UNSDL who think it's
broken. It's not. It's just that it relies on undocumented/unreleased features
of VMS and so is susceptible to 'hidden' changes. That's the price for using
such features; I'm happy to put up with little inconveniences for such a useful
tool (most of the time :-).

While I'm about, I'd like to add my thanks to Joe Meadows for all the useful
utilities he's come up. I use FILE almost daily and others, e.g. VERB, FIND,
UNSDL, quite frequently, Thanks Joe.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name : Derek Dongray, Systems Manager, GenRad Ltd.
Phone : 061 486 1511 ext 166
PSS : 234261600119::Dongray                 UKnet : Derek.Dongray@GenRad.co.uk
InterNet : Dongray@cdclu1.GenRad.com        CompuServe : 70374,2745
Address : Monmouth House, Monmouth Road, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, SK8 7AY, UK.