mms/mmk differences

[hb--]

It seems .error is a MMK feature, which was/is not available in MMS. I stumbled over it in SQLITE3, when trying to build that with MMS:

.IF "$(MMSARCH_NAME)" .EQ "Alpha"
ARCH = AXP
.ELSIF "$(MMSARCH_NAME)" .EQ "IA64"
ARCH = I64
.ELSIF "$(MMSARCH_NAME)" .EQ "VAX"
ARCH = VAX
.ELSE
.ERROR You must define the ARCH macro as one of: VAX, AXP or I64
.ENDIF
(oh, shouldn't the error message say IA64?)

Anyway, it seems reasonable to mention this difference, as well as (OK, I didn't check the docs for this one):

$ mms /desc=tt:
CFLAGS = $(CFLAGS)/NAME=AS_IS
CFLAGS = $(CFLAGS)/WARN=DISABLE=(LONGEXTERN,EMPTYFILE)
%MMS-W-MBREDEFILL, Illegal attempt to redefine macro CFLAGS
all :
write sys$output "$(CFLAGS)"
Exit
write sys$output "/NOLIST/OBJECT=ALL.OBJ/NAME=AS_IS"
/NOLIST/OBJECT=ALL.OBJ/NAME=AS_IS
$

[tesneddon]

Yes, .ERROR is a unique feature of MMK. I have no immediate recollection of the manual. I'll have a look and see if it needs updating. (Just looked, there are no directives documented in the manual).

You are also correct about the error message typo too :-)

As for the difference...well, that is because there is no /EXTENDED_SYNTAX qualifier that has been added to the MMS command. I don't think that is really worth mention though as just about every useful feature of MMS requires this qualifier. Without there are no built-in functions, no redefinition of macros, etc.