[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Robin Fairbairns]

 "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> writes:
>Bob Eager wrote:
>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:57:31 -0400, John Reagan wrote:
>> 
>>> "Bob Eager" <rde42 at spamcop.net> wrote...
>>>> On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:46:35 +0200, Michael Kraemer wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Paul Anderson schrieb:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Unix is older than VMS but don't confuse me with the facts.  ;-)
>>>>> At worst the difference is a few years only (and don't confuse Multics
>>>>> with Unix), which is insignificant in hindsight of 30* years.
>>>> Anyway, 32 bit UNIX didn't arrive until *after* VMS. One would have to
>>>> compare early UNIX (even on the PDP-11) with 16 bit VMS (or RSX-11, as
>>>> we know it)! :-)
>>> The Perkin-Elmer 8/32 (a 32-bit computer) ran a flavor of UNIX and was
>>> in the field before the first VAXen.  My former employer had one.  It
>>> was the first non-PDP-11 computer to run UNIX.
>> 
>> <pedant>
>> UNIX first appeared on the PDP-7, in around 1970. OK, it was written in 
>> assembler...!
>> </pedant>
>> 
>> Anyway...I'd be interested in dates. UNIX didn't go (semi-) public until 
>> about 1976 (I started using it in July 1976). Not sure about first VMS 
>> dates but I thought it was about then. Presumably the PE 8/32 (that was 
>> the Interdata later, wasn't it?) post-dates the PDP-11 version going 
>> public as v6?
>> 
>> Perhaps VMS was later than I thought, but 1976 sticks in my mind.
>
>Try 1978 for VMS and the VAX 11/780.  First customer shipment could have 
>been WAY after that but I think 1978 is a good date for the hardware and 
>software.

warning: possibly unreliable memory here

we had a 780 (in cambridge, uk) in late 1979.  someone else suggested
vms was buggy at first ship: i didn't find that.  it wasn't perfect,
and it did indeed have a lot of very lightly-ported rsx-11m apps.

(i know buggy oses: in my research life, both before and after the vax
period, i've written one and been part of the team for two others.)

and the fortran compiler also ran in compatibility mode, though (iirc)
it produced 32-bit code.

i loved it: as a systems programming platform, it was as well-designed
as ever i've dealt with.  the sort of thing one might tinker with
after retiring...
-- 
Robin Fairbairns, Cambridge