Hello Peter,
Thanks for getting back to me.  Thank you for your suggestion - I have had a 
look but I think Tramp mode is not quite what I need, though I can see how it 
might appear to fit.
I too have not edited files on VMS for about 20 years, and even now that is not 
what I am seeking to do.  It looks to me like Tramp will let me edit RMS files 
on a Vax provided I have a running Vax to edit the files on.  My actual 
situation is that I have been given a dump of a Vax disk, as Windows files.  
The flies appear to be binary copies so are in RMS format and so that is what I 
need to access, files on windows that are in RMS format.  It looks like Emacs 
has a system for handling Coding Systems that ought to be able to handle this - 
or to allow me to write my own handler, and that is what I am looking for 
information on.

And I have already written an application that can convert these files into 
conventional Windows format.  I would like to be able to view the files without 
needing to convert them first.

I think I may need to ask on the Emacs development list.

Regards,
Richard,



From: Peter Milliken <peter.milli...@gmail.com>
Sent: 18 September 2021 05:26
To: Kerry, Richard <richard.ke...@atos.net>
Cc: help-emacs-windows@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Coding System handler to access Vax-VMS/OpenVMS/RMS text files 
from Windows Emacs


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Richard,

It's been 20 years since I last used Emacs on a Windows computer to edit files 
under VMS, but from memory, I used Tramp Mode (Transparent Remote Access 
Multiple Protocols), it handled all of that stuff transparently.

Best of luck,
Peter

On Fri, Sep 17, 2021 at 9:10 PM Kerry, Richard 
<richard.ke...@atos.net<mailto:richard.ke...@atos.net>> wrote:

Does anyone know whether there is a Coding System handler available that will 
allow me to use Windows Emacs to view text files originating from a Vax system? 
 Ie from a system running Vax/VS or OpenVMS.  The filing system in these is 
called RMS, which means it is difficult to successfully search for Emacs issues 
relating to it using that term.
I have established that text files on that system are not stored using a line 
terminator/separator character, like many other OSs tend to do (ie CR and/or LF 
chars).  Instead it uses a system where each line starts with two bytes 
representing its length.
My understanding that emacs uses a Coding System driver to interface between 
the underlying files and its string representation.  I would expect that if 
there is a VMS implementation of Emacs (which there is, or has been) then it 
would include this handling, however I have the files on a Windows PC so I need 
Windows Emacs to be able to access them.

Has anyone done this?
Is there just an incantation that I need to enable it, or might I have to get 
into writing the driver myself?

Regards,
Richard.



Richard Kerry
BNCS Engineer, SI SOL Telco & Media Vertical Practice
M: +44 (0)7812 325518
2nd Floor, MidCity Place, 71 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6EA
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