$ type MMS020.RELEASE_NOTES
RELEASE NOTES FOR DEC/MMS V2.0



NEW FEATURES


      o  Existing description files should continue to work without  any
         changes.

      o  Better use of built-in rules and updated built-in macros.

      o  New directives .FIRST, .LAST, .IFDEF, and .ENDIF.

      o  New mnemonic synonyms for the MMS special macros.

      o  Three new qualifiers, /NODESCRIPTION, /FROM_SOURCES, and /HELP.

      o  Specification of a file that contains the default rules MMS  is
         to  use.  This feature is provided by a parameter to the /RULES
         command and the logical name MMS$RULES.

      o  Enhanced messages produced by the /LOG qualifier.

      o  Automatic access to description files and .INCLUDE files stored
         in VAX DEC/CMS libraries.

      o  Support for files stored in VAX FMS (Forms  Management  System)
         libraries  and  in  the  VAX CDD (Common Data Dictionary).  You
         must have VAX FMS  Version  2.1  or  later  installed  on  your
         system.

      o  Support  for  wildcard  characters  in  the  specifications  of
         VAX/VMS library modules.

      o  A new facility for managing subprocesses that allows quotas  to
         be  reduced.  The minimum BYTLM quota has been reduced to 13000
         if using DEC/MMS recursively and  8192  if  not  using  DEC/MMS
         recursively.

      o  More error checking and more descriptive error messages.

      o  Printing of the erroneous line when a syntax error is  detected
         in a description file.

      o  A new installation procedure using VMSINSTAL.



ACTION LINE RESTRICTIONS

   In DEC/MMS V2.0, the maximum length of a quoted string or comment  on
   an  action line is 130 characters.  This includes all macros in their
   expanded forms.  MMS issues an error when a quoted string or  comment
   longer than 130 characters is encountered in an action line.

   Quotes imbedded in other quotes on action lines  may  not  behave  as
   expected.   Whenever this becomes a problem, you may assign the inner
   quoted string to be a DCL symbol, and use that DCL symbol within  the
   outer quoted string.

   Action lines may not create their own  subprocess.   DEC/MMS  creates
   (with  LIB$SPAWN)  and  manipulates  a  subprocess  to execute action
   lines.  If an action line creates its own subprocess, the results are
   unpredictable.

   An action line specified using  the  single  action  dependency  rule
   format  may  not  be  continued onto another line.  This format is as
   follows:

   ####TARGET(S) :  SOURCE(S) ; ACTION [!  comment]



WARNINGS


   1.  Any dependency rule whose action results in updating not only the
       given  target  for that rule, but another target in an MMS build,
       may have unpredictable results.

   2.  If a target appears in two  dependency  rules  in  a  description
       file,  and  action  lines are specified for both, the action line
       from the later dependency rule is used.   For  example,  see  the
       following description file:

                 FOO : BAR
                      action one
                 FOO : BAR BAS
                      action two

       If the file FOO needs updating, then the second  action  will  be
       performed, and the first action will be discarded.



INFORMATION


    o  The minimum value for the BYTLM quota has been reduced  to  13000
       when invoking MMS from the description file and 8192 when not.

    o  Because MMS is now linked to system wide sharable libraries,  you
       may  receive  a "virtual memory exceeded" error message.  You may
       avoid this error by increasing your PGFLQUOTA quota.

    o  In the current version of DEC/MMS,  CMS  elements  in  dependency
       rules may contain only one CMS library element at a time.

    o  DEC/MMS does not support RSX libraries in the same way as  native
       VAX  libraries.   Since  the  time associated with modules in RSX
       libraries contains only date  information  and  not  hour:min:sec
       information,  you  may  not  access  individual modules in an RSX
       library.  RSX libraries should be treated like  any  other  files
       when you are specifying dependencies in your description file.


    o  Action lines greater than 80 characters with a comment no  longer
       cause  MMS to hang.  Because of this fix, DCL executable comments
       (DCL comments containing lexical functions) will not work and are
       not supported.

    o  MMS will now work when your subprocess quota is only one and  you
       are  not  using the $(MMS) macro (using MMS recursively).  If you
       use the $(MMS) macro, a subprocess quota of 2 is required.

    o  Not using the $(MMS) macro to recursively invoke  MMS  when  your
       subprocess quota is less than 2 is unsupported.

    o  MMS compares time stamps when CMS access  is  specified  for  the
       /DESCRIPTION  qualifier and the .INCLUDE directive and will fetch
       the file from CMS if necessary.

    o  For the built-in rules  to  work  properly  with  logicals,  only
       specify  the device and directory portion of a file specification
       with a logical.  DEC/MMS does not  translate  logical  names  and
       will  not  apply a built-in rule if a file name and file type are
       specified with a logical name.

    o  Logicals used in object library file specifications  may  not  be
       defined  in  terms  of  other  logicals.   The  lexical  function
       F$SEARCH only translates one level of logicals.

    o  Only one subprocess is created and all action lines are  executed
       in  the  context of this one subprocess.  Using SET DEFAULT in an
       action line will work as expected.  However, action lines have no
       effect on the parent task in which MMS is executing.

    o  The file generated  by  /OUTPUT  now  contains  $  as  the  first
       character  of  each  command if your CLI is DCL.  This will allow
       the generated output file to be used as a DCL command procedure.

    o  The STOP, LOGOUT, SPAWN, and CREATE DCL commands may not be  used
       in  an action line.  The same functionality as the CREATE command
       may be obtained by using the OPEN, WRITE, and CLOSE commands.

    o  Action lines may only consist of CLI commands.   Specifying  data
       to be used as input to previously run programs is not supported.

    o  If  multiple  targets  appear  in  one  dependency  rule   in   a
       description  file  the  action  line specified or implied will be
       executed once for each target.  Specifying more than  one  target
       in  a dependency rule is a shorthand notation for specifying both
       rules separately.

    o  Specifying more than one element in  a  library  reference  is  a
       shorthand  notation  for  specifying  each  element  in a library
       reference as a target.

    o  All characters in the description file  are  converted  to  upper
       case except those enclosed in double quotes (").

    o  The number of simultaneous files open is restricted to seventeen.
       This  includes  the  description  file,  include  file, and files
       specified in dependencies.  Note that a  CMS  file  implies  four
       simultaneously open files (three for CMS access and the specified
       file).

    o  Action lines preceded by the ignore  prefix  (-)  must  be  on  a
       separate  line.   The ; form may not be used as the ignore prefix
       will be interpreted as a line continuation and not as  an  ignore
       prefix.

    o  MMS uses the  LIB$SPAWN  Run-Time  Library  call  to  create  the
       subprocess  in  which  the action lines are executed.  Please see
       the  description  of  LIB$SPAWN  in  the  VAX  Run-Time   Library
       Reference Manual for more information.

    o  If /CMS was specified and a  file  specified  contains  directory
       information and the source exists in the default CMS library with
       a newer time than the specified file, MMS will fetch this  source
       from  the  default  CMS  library.  It is fetched into the current
       default directory, however, and not into the specified  one.   It
       is  not possible in this release for MMS to fetch a file from CMS
       into a directory other than the current default one.

$ 
