The OpenVMS User's Guide, Second Edition
A broad introductory overview of OpenVMS that focuses on command procedures, text editing and system utilities.
TABLE OF CONTENTS The OpenVMS User's Guide, Second Edition
Section 1.8: Using the Type-Ahead Buffer
1.8 Using the Type-Ahead Buffer
In addition to a Recall buffer, OpenVMS has the Type-Ahead buffer. Perhaps you noticed that you can enter new commands while OpenVMS is doing something else printing a directory or listing users logged in, for example. The Type-Ahead buffer stores the new keystrokes while OpenVMS executes the other command. When OpenVMS is finished, it acts on the new keystrokes. For example, you can enter a TYPE command. While OpenVMS is displaying the lines of the specified file, you can enter a DIRECTORY command. As soon as OpenVMS finishes the TYPE command, it executes the DIRECTORY command, which was stored in the Type-Ahead buffer. If you know you made a typing mistake when entering commands into the Type-Ahead buffer, you can clear the Type-Ahead buffer by pressing Ctrl/X. Follow Experiment 1.9 to see how this buffer works.
Experiment 1.9 Using the Type-Ahead Buffer
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Enter a DIRECTORY/FULL command. While the list of file characteristics is being displayed, enter a SHOW USERS command and then a TYPE AI.TXT command:
$ <b class="bold">directory/full</b>Directory PACK2:[YOURGROUP.YOU]AI.TXT;1 File ID: (38657,93,256)...
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Repeat step 1, but this time press Ctrl/X after entering the TYPE command. In the experiment, the output from DIRECTORY/FULL continued to be displayed while you entered the new command lines. The entered command lines were saved in the Type-Ahead buffer. When the DIRECTORY/FULL command finished processing, DCL fetched and executed...
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