From:	SMTP%"lionel@quark.enet.dec.com" 20-JUN-1994 10:46:34.97
To:	EVERHART
CC:	
Subj:	Re: sys$putmsg without sys$error output

From: lionel@quark.enet.dec.com (Steve Lionel)
X-Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: sys$putmsg without sys$error output
Date: 20 Jun 1994 13:29:35 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Nashua NH
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Reply-To: lionel@quark.enet.dec.com (Steve Lionel)
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In article <20JUN199408303350@author.gsfc.nasa.gov>, 
rkoehler@author.gsfc.nasa.gov (Bob Koehler) writes:
|>In article <1994Jun20.100915.1@condor>, nelkonn@logica.co.uk (Neville Nelkon) writes...
|>>I am looking for something similar to sys$putmsg which just provides
|>>the expanded text.
|>> 
|>>I do not want the text to go to sys$output/sys$error and would prefer
|>>if possible a) not to need to redefine these to NL b) not to perform
|>>$fao expansions myself.
|>> 
|>
|>See sys$getmsg.

No, that just retrieves the message text, it does NOT fill in the
FAO arguments and do other formatting.

This is actually easy to do, but the documentation is weak as to how.  Call
SYS$PUTMSG and specify an action routine for doing the display.  The routine
will be called once per line of the message with a string containing the
formatted message text; passed by class S descriptor.  You can then do what
you want with this string (write it somewhere else, copy it to an
application-defined string, etc.)  The key is that the action routine should
return a status with the low bit clear (0 will work); this will tell
SYS$PUTMSG not to write out the text itself.  See the example for $PUTMSG
in the System Services Reference Manual.
-- 

Steve Lionel                      Mail: lionel@quark.enet.dec.com
SDT Languages Group               WWW:  http://www.digital.com/info/slionel.html
Digital Equipment Corporation     
110 Spit Brook Road, ZKO2-3/N30
Nashua, NH 03062-2698             "Free advice is worth every cent"

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