Computer history TNO-FEL:
Some NOS/VE Commands

Here is a list of some NOS/VE commands. It follows the convention of showing the allowable abbreviated version of the commands in uppercase: the first three characters of the command followed by the first character of each next command name part. Commands always started with a verb and the plural version of the command name was allowed when it made sense (e.g. ATTACH-FILES).
For instance, the short form of SET_Working_Catalog was SETWC. The commands were actually not case-sensitive.

Catalog and File Commands

Command	Description
CREate_Catalog	Creates catalog (directory), like UNIX or MS-DOS mkdir.
DELete_Catalog	Delete a catalog, like UNIX rmdir.
DISplay_Catalog	Displays names of files in a catalog, like UNIX ls.
DISplay_Catalog_Entry	Show filesystem-related attributes of file, such as time of last access, like UNIX ls -l.
CHAnge_Catalog_Entry	Renames a file, like MS-DOS REN. The logic behind this weird name is that you aren't changing the file, but rather the catalog containing the name of the file.
CREate_Catalog_Permit	Assign permissions to catalog. Are you getting it? What is the name of the command to remove the permit?
CREate_File_Permit	Assign permissions to a file.
ATTach_File	Associates file with a name in $LOCAL (usually not needed), or accesses a file with specific permissions for later use. In some cases, the system would access a file with different permissions than you want.
DETach_File	Explicitly releases file or disassociates file from name in $LOCAL.

SET_File_Attribute	Set attributes of file, such as record size, default position ($BOI, $EOI), access type, start access log. Files had many more system-recognized attributes than in MS-DOS and UNIX, for instance.
CHAnge_File_Attribute	Similar to SET_File_Attribute, but change was not made permanent.
DISplay_File_Attribute	Show file attributes of file, such as open status, access log and so on.
REQuest_Terminal	Associate a file with the terminal.

COPy_File	Obvious.
DELete_File	Obvious.
COLlect_Text END=string	Create file based from $INPUT. Depending on the source (batch or terminal) this took input from the command source until the end string (default "**") was detected or from a usual terminal input stream.
COMpare_File	Binary file compare; not very full-featured. There were CDC unsupported (say "public domain") libraries with helpful SCL coded procedures that displayed the differences in ASCII format.
DISplay_File	Dump file in various formats, like UNIX od. Not very good.

BACkup_Permanent_File	Obvious.
REStore_Permanent_File	Obvious function. It had, however, a large number of options allowing only the restore of catalogs, selected catalog entries and so on. The input to RESPF could be a large file with descriptions with what to include, what to exclude and what and how to display a logging.

Job and Job Attributes Commands

Command	Description
SET_Working_Catalog	Like MS-DOS or UNIX cd.
SET_Command_List	Sets list of libraries searched for commands, like MS-DOS PATH.
DISplay_Command_List	Shows list of libraries searched for commands, like MS-DOS PATH.
SET_Job_Limit	Change job limit, such as number of CPU seconds allowed before job aborts.
SET_Program_Attribute	Set various job settings, such as list of libraries searched when looking for object files.
DISplay_Program_Attribute	Displays various job settings.
SET_Terminal_Attributes	Tells system about attributes of terminal associated with this job.
DISplay_Message	Places message in job log or operator console.
DISplay_Log	Display the job log.
REQuest_Operator_Action	Pauses job, waiting for operation action.
LOGOUT	Obvious.

SUBmit_Job	Submit a file of commands as a batch job.
PRInt_File	Send file to printer.
DISplay_Job_Status	Display status of a given job.
DISplay_Print_Status	Display status of a given queued print file.

Magnetic Tape Commands

Command	Description
REServe_Resource	Assign a tape drive or other resource to the job. Only required when more than one tape unit at the same time was required. Otherwise a scheduling conflict with another job might occur.
RELease_Resource	Return resource to operating system; most often used with tape drives.
REQuest_Magnetic_Tape	Couples magnetic tape information (VSN, tape density and write or read/only (RING)) to a local file name. When that file was accessed, the tape request flashed on the console and became visible in the Display_Operator_Status displat.
REWind_File	Rewind tape or move file pointer to beginning of file.
SKIp_Tape_Mark	Skip to next tape mark on tape.

Developer's Tools

Command	Description
EDIt_File	Text editor; full-screen if you had a decent terminal. The terminal possibilities could be specified and converted to a special terminal library using the Terminal_Description_Utility (TDU). A personal terminal description was useful for having other colours and character sizes.
FORTRAN	Run FORTRAN 77 compiler.
SCU	Maintain source code library. A newer version of the old UPDATE. Features included version control of different acceptance stages of software.
CREate_Object_Library	Create library file, which contains SCL procedures, object files, maybe also executables (?).

Miscellaneous Commands

Command	Description
DISplay_Command_Information command-name	Display of all the command parameters and the acceptable values of a command. This powerfull informational command also worked for system SCL procedures and user procedures. The command was initiated, but short-stopped (a kind of breakpoint). This command always gave the appropriate list of parameters (on-line manuals were sometimes behind).
DISplay_Function_Information command	Display of all the function parameters and the acceptable values of command. Note that this also worked for system SCL functions and user functions.
DISplay_Value	Evaluate and display expression.
INClude_File	Execute commands taken from a file.
EXPlain	Provide on-line help.
SET_Password	Changes logon password.

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25/02/1998