[Info-vax] Moving away from OpenVMS

[JF Mezei]

Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

> If the code does not contain hardware or O/S dependencies, you should be 
> able to compile, link, and go.  If the code DOES contain O/S or hardware 
> dependencies, you are in deep trouble!  Your first concern should be to 
> have the perpetrators killed!

One of the many values of VMS was its rich set or proprietary system
services.

Any shop that has developped a lot of stuff on VMS over decades is bound
to have developped many dependencies on VMS specific stuff.

Just consider the terminal driver's built-in timeout capability. If you
use that and move to Unix or even TCPIP, you need to re-invent the wheel.


This is why it is so important to do an inventory of all the OS specific
depednencies and work a plan to map those to the target system either by
writing equivalent routines, or changing the programs.