Commenting "DEF" Command Files 
+                                Commenting "DEF" Command Files 
+                                Commenting "DEF" Command Files 
         
                                        Paul D. Clayton 
         
         
                There was some interest expressed during the Miami  '81  DECUS Symposia 
        about  getting comments into the command files that can  be  generated  by  the 
        RMS-11  utility  "DEF". The purpose would be that a  more  user  understandable 
        file is generated making life a little easier for the next guy. 
         
                After  talking  to  some  of  the  RMS-11  development  people  at  the 
        campground  in  Miami, Tim Day suggested a means to put  comments  in  the  DEF 
        command files. 
         
                It turns out that on a number of questions asked by  the DEF utility, a 
        comment  can be entered after the requested response IF it  is  preceded  by  a 
        space. Answering all the questions asked by DEF should be  done  (do not accept 
        the defaults, they leave blank lines) with your response  followed  by  a space 
        than your comment. If the default response is what you  want,  re-enter  it and 
        follow it with a comment to describe what the parameter  means.  A  DEF command 
        file can be succesfully edited as long as no lines  are  deleted physcally from 
        the file, and the desired response is in the first columns  followed by a space 
        or carriage return. Blank lines are very important place  holders, and can only 
        be replaced by the desired response. 
         
                The easiest way to know if a question allows a  comment  to  follow, is 
        to enter a comment after it. If comments are not allowed,  the question will be 
        repeated for "correct" data to be entered. In simple terms,  you  can't lose by 
        trying a comment. We are using DEF Version 1.8 and the  only  prompts  that  do 
        not allow comments are for file specifications and file protection codes. 
         
                A sample commented DEF command file is shown below  with comments after 
        all the prompts that allow them. 
         
         
        ;THE FIRST QUESTION ASKS FOR THE FILE SPECIFICATION. 
        PDCIDX.IDX 
        YES SUPERCEDE 
        ;THE NEXT QUESTIONS DEAL WITH FILE ORGANIZATION & RECORD ATTRIBUTES 
        SEQ SEQUENTIAL FILE ORGANIZATION WANTED 
        VAR RECORD SIZE IS VARIABLE  
        100 MAXIMUM RECORD SIZE 
        YES ALLOW CROSS OF BLOCK BOUDARIES 
        YES WE WANT CARRIAGE CONTROL 
        ;THE NEXT QUESTIONS DEAL WITH ALLOCATION AND PLACEMENT ATTRIBUTES 
        YES PLACEMENT CONTROL WANTED 
        2   LOCATION 
        NO  EXACT PLACEMENT WANTED 
        20  INITIAL ALLOCATION FOR FILE 
        20  DEFAULT EXTENSION IN BLOCKS 
        NO  CONTIGUOUS FILE NOT NEEDED 
        ;THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS DEAL WITH FILE PROTECTION 
        RWED 
        RWE 
        RWED 
        R