[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Bob Koehler]

In article <7hdeqeF2qoc2jU2 at mid.individual.net>, billg999 at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes:
> In article <32gk6SH+kao5 at eisner.encompasserve.org>,
> 	koehler at eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) writes:
>> In article <7hchmmF2r574qU3 at mid.individual.net>, billg999 at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes:
>>>  
>>> So, now we are back to arguing what is OS and what is an application
>>> on top of the OS.  Is BASH part of the OS?  Is DCL?
>> 
>>    DCL is certainly part of VMS.  It is not a user mode program, it
>>    comes with the OS, and by default the OS is set up to grant it
>>    the environment it needs to run in supervisor mode.
> 
> You mean like the Unix Shell that does all the startup scripts and yet
> isn't part  of the OS????

   I wouldn't want to, but I think I could write those steps in C
   programs instead of shell scripts.  Or I could change the boot
   processing to use to a different shell.

   But a UNIX shell is a user mode program that does not need a special
   environment.  Most UNIX today will prevent the unprivileged user from
   chsh to just any random program, but they can invoke there own
   program as a shell after they log in without losing any other
   feature.

   Try that on VMS and you'll find somethings that a CLI can do that
   your program can't.