Requiring modules in VMS

[Renato Maia <maia@...>]

Hi all.

I'm using Lua in the OpenVMS operating system. However I'm getting  
trouble to use 'require' because I can't see a way to create file  
paths from module names by simply replacing of the '.' character.  
Even composing the full module file path from the 'package.path' by  
simple replacement of the '?' character seems to be impossible.

I'm not a VMS expert but as far as I know a simplified description of  
VMS file paths is that they are made of a list of nested directory  
names given between square brackets and separated by dotches and the  
file name is appended to its end. For example the equivalent of the  
unix path 'lualibs/share/5.1/lua/package/module.lua' would be  
something like '[.LUALIBS.SHARE.5.1.LUA.PACKAGE]MODULE.LUA'. The  
first dotch after the opening square bracket indicates a relative  
path. The directory '5.1' became two nested directories because  
directory names cannot have a dotch.

So my questions are: (a) has any one made any adjustments in the  
package model implementation to fit the VMS environment? (b) What  
would be the proper way to do it? Does Lua source code provides any  
support or trick to deal with such odd situation? Or should I better  
add some #ifdef VMS directives and provide a VMS specific 'findfile'  
implementation?

Thanks!

--
Renato Maia
PhD student at PUC-Rio
__________________________
http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~maia/