[Info-vax] What is VMS?

[JohnF]

John Wallace <johnwallace4 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Skip Morris <mor... at skip.net> wrote:
>> > seasoned_geek <rol... at logikalsolutions.com> wrote:
>> > > "The Minimum You Need to
>> > >  Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer".
>>
>> > the price is $150. ?Way too much for casual interest.
>>
>> Um....the list price for a brand new printed version is $90 US.
>> Please provide a link where you found someone screwing the public for
>> $150.
>
> An internet search for this book title plus the word "buy" using a
> well known search engine finds two of the first three results are from
> the US and UK websites of a well known store which I believe isn't one
> of your favourites but is for whatever reason widely used by the
> public. The UK website has two suppliers at ~?340 used (both seemingly
> from US suppliers) and the US store has one supplier at ~$140 new.

I usually use  http://www.bookfinder.com  which seems to me
to be very comprehensive and seller agnostic, but maybe they
have some bias I'm not aware of (haven't really checked them out).
Anyway, for this particular title, see (or, sorry for the long link,
just go to bookfinder.com and cut-and-paste the title)

http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t1_1&qi=4EfFVU30.A7423.Y76D525aQd4I_3988420583_1:2:167&bq=author%3Droland%2520hughes%26title%3Dminimum%2520you%2520need%2520to%2520know%2520to%2520be%2520an%2520openvms%2520application%2520developer

They show amazon.ca with a new but out-of-stock copy which they'll
deliver when available for $103, and they also seem to have a
used copy for $542 (not a typo, at least not by me).
amazon.com has a new (and apparently available) copy for $151,
and alibris has a used (trade paperback version) for $90.
Doesn't seem to be widely distributed (most books I look for there have
pages of suppliers, even technical books out-of-print for decades).
   One book I ordered from alibris in July was delivered through
their partner/subsidiary/I-don't-know-what called Shams, but was
the wrong volume of a two-volume set. After obtaining a return
authorization as instructed, they pretty quickly and without
any bickering refunded the full $171.50 to my paypal account.
(Then I found an absolutely pristine pdf of the right book online
and somewhat reluctantly took the easy way out.)

P.S. to original poster -- there are two variants of your question,
"What is VMS?" as you asked, and "What was VMS?" And I assume you get
my drift.
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j at f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )