[Info-vax] What is VMS?

[Bob Koehler]

In article <36022090-346e-4b60-bbe2-90f23ea1036e at y7g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>, abrsvc <dansabrservices at yahoo.com> writes:
> 
> FWIW:  The sources were last shipped on fiche for V5.4-2 on VAX.  No
> listings were shipped on fiche for Alpha. At that time, there were
> hundreds of fiche sheets for the VMS listings and an almost equivalent
> number of sheets for DECWindows listings.  (I still have them.)  From
> there, the source listings were available on CD.  Source listings were
> also available on magtape.  Actual sources were also available for a
> price for local VMS modifications. These sources did NOT include any
> of the password code or its handling code.  These parts were shipped
> as executables only.

   The fiche (or CD) listings didn't include everything.  They did
   include everything I needed to dealwith the crash dumps I was
   getting.  Lots of custom hardware, custom device drivers, and a
   couple of user written system services.

   One day I found a call to lib$find_file on the fiche.  It wasn't
   documented, yet.  There was no source for it on the fiche.  I wasn't
   declared as an available entry point that LINK could find.

   I was so happy when it showed up as documented and supported in the
   next major release.

   But some pieces of VMS were IP licensed from other vendors and cannot
   be shipped in any form by the owner of VMS.  They would have to be
   obtained from thier owners.