[Info-vax] OT: Rob Short: Operating System Evolution

[John Wallace]

On Jan 6, 4:50 am, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net>
wrote:
> Bob Koehler wrote:
> > In article <oe6dnbsExJlqqtzWnZ2dnUVZ_uCdn... at giganews.com>, "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilber... at comcast.net> writes:
> >> I wouldn't expect ANY word processor to be a huge success on VMS.  It's
> >> damned difficult to run a WYSIWYG processor on a system that natively
> >> can output only ASCII text.  You can run it on a workstation but I think
> >> it's a great deal cheaper to run it on a PC.
>
> >    Why in the world do you think VMS "can output only ASCII text"?  I've
> >    been using other data formats on VMS since 1980.
>
> Which tools in VMS (not layered products) output selectable fonts and
> selectable type sizes?  I can do a lot with TeX and LaTeX but that's not
> native VMS.

Let's assume that you consider DECwindows Motif not a layered product.
Is that OK?

If you have Motif, then you have the DECwindows Mail which I mentioned
earlier, which iirc had a proper WYSYWIG GUI.

If you consult the relevant docs (eg Managing DECwindows Motif for
OpenVMS, at
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/73final/6300/6300pro.html
), you don't exactly find a fully functional WYSYWIG word processor
like DECwrite, but you do find:

    * Applications
          o Bookreader
          o Calculator
          o Calendar
          o Cardfiler
          o Clock
          o CDA Viewer
          o DECsound
          o DECterm
          o FileView
          o Mail
          o Notepad
          o Paint
          o PrintScreen

Notepad, iirc, wasn't basic like MS Notepad, it was a proper WYSYWIG
notepad.

And in addition to the layered products JF already mentioned, there
was notably also a DECwindows version of (VAX/DEC) NOTES. Fancy that,
a distributed forum-like tool which could do text *and pictures*
(albeit without the delights back then of animated per-user avatars
and other such modern-bbs essentials).

There was also another layered product to handle scanning of images to
CDA documents, and there may have been other stuff I've forgotten.

The fact that you're unaware of these things may just highlight what a
poor job DEC did back then of making people aware of what you could do
with a VMS (or DEC UNIX) workstation desktop.

There's an entirely separate discussion to have about whether WYSYWIG
(DECwrite, Interleaf, Word, etc) or a text-based tool (TeX, LaTeX,
DECdocument) is most appropriate for any given set of jobs, but in the
volume market, WYSYWIG seems to rule the world these days, so let's
take that as read for now.