[Info-vax] VMS port to x86

[Subcommandante XDelta]

On Thu, 24 May 2012 13:35:33 -0400, JF Mezei
<jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote:

>JKB wrote:
>
>> 	Right. I think it's really time to know if we want to assist to VMS
>> 	death or if we want to do somethink to keep VMS alive. 
>
>
>It isnt our business to do either. VMS is a commercial product entirely
>owned by HO at the moment. HP is the one to assist its death or do
>something to keep it alive.
>
>We can't change HP's mind on this.  VMS is small compared to whatever
>conracts HP has signed with Intel and HP isn't going to change those to
>please VMS enthousiasts.
>
>The only aspect the community can do is convince HP to announce it will
>open source VMS on the day it announces the end of the line for iA64 VMS
>and HP-UX.
>
>Yes, it would have been nice if VMS had been onwed by a company whose
>survival depended on the success of VMS because you would have then seen
>that company market, price and develop VMS to compete and grow. But this
>is now the case and it is entirely out of our hands.
>
>Now, if HP were to come to us and ask us what would be needed to bring
>VMS back to life, then our opinions would count. But that's not gonna
>happen.

"They can't abide the cold steel, sir! no, sir! They don't like it
  up 'em."

-- Lance Corporal Jack Jones (The local butcher), “Dad’s Army”

Call me a sentimental old fool (guilty as charged!).

But let us assume, for argument's sake, that Meg Whitman is a
innocent, a "clean hands", naive about the sheer inherent quality and
potential of the VMS asset on the HP books - that she is not (yet) a
"Lady Macbeth" in relation to VMS. Rather that she is currently a
"Desdemona" badly advised on VMS by myriad "Iago"s in senior HP
management, for any number of reasons foul.

Then how do you properly brief her and how do you ensure that
everybody knows that she is properly briefed and she knows that
everybody knows she has been properly briefed, without anyone losing
face?

Construct a formal, dry, sober, comprehensive and immaculate
Memoradum, clean of any (so called) "VMS Mysticism" then publish it on
a dedicated website and then also send her a printed copy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorandum
http://courses.washington.edu/affhsg/pdf/memoonmemos.pdf

Even if you are a moping no-hoping nay-sayer about the future of VMS,
put your melancholy to the side, or send it on a holiday, and give it
your best shot.

Rather than opening a specific thread and incrementally developing
such a Memorandum, I would suggest instead initially opening a
dedicated thread devoted to fleshing out topics and subtopics that
need to be addressed in any such Memorandum, and try to avoid
discussing the substance and content of each topic and sub-topic as
much as possible.

Then a two week development period is declared and a nominated
delivery date defined, and the comp.os collegiate then retire to their
man-caves, dens, skunkworks cellars, backyard sheds, garages or
machine rooms and then compose their own version of such a Memorandum,
to the best of their abilities, experience and expertise. 

(People could also inform their networks of digits from VMS
Engineering or otherwise that still hold a candle for VMS, inviting
them to muck in, too, NDA's signed should not be a gaffer-tape
impediment to so mucking in.)

Upon the nominated date a new dedicated thread is opened where people
publish their version of such a Memorandum and no commentary is
allowed in the thread - it is *strictly* for collection.

After that, it is then discussed how to go about the business of
compiling a master Memorandum. Plain text or source code, same diff,
whack it into a collaborative RCS/VCS, agree on some sort of editorial
committee to compile and edit it all into order and let it rip.

Once the master Memorandum is matured and stabilised, a dedicated
website is established, and word is put out inviting people to put
their names, ranks and serial numbers, extant or emeritus, to it in
support. Also effort it put into making sure that the CEO's of all the
known business customers of VMS are informed of the Memorandum's
existence, inviting them to put their or their business entity's name
to the Memorandum as well.

(It would not hurt notifying the major long-term investors in HP were
notified also)

[Dilatory side: is it not time that Vernon had a Facebook page?]

As everyone is well aware, the 25th of October 2012 is the 35th
anniversary of the mighty VMS operating system, is comp.os.vms going
to celebrate that with a whimper or a roar?

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377
http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/784/

Hell, it's something noble and worthy to do besides fussing over the
grand-children and you would be doing it for their benefit anyway.

VMS is part of their intellectual heritage and conceptual literacy in
the commonweath of computer science, the most immaculate, logical,
systematic, disciplined, and literate culture and "vade mecum" about
how to go about the business of computing at every level of operating
system function, that has ever been devised, it is a glory and
testament to wo/man's ingenuity.

Do you want them to inherit a world which is essentially a dreary,
dire, conceptually retarded, monoculture of Microsoft operating
systems with a bit of GNU/Linux (not half bad I must admit, but not a
patch on VMS) on the side, in which to scratch out a living from
matters computing?

I say give such a future a resounding Bronx cheer.

[Danger! Danger! Will Robinson - you are veering into "VMS Mysticism"
- Ed.]

Ok, call me a slightly unhinged sentimental old fool.

But is it the kernel of a Plan? - has it got moxie?

What say you gentlemen (and Ruth if she is kibitzing on comp.os.vms)?

if not, think of something better and do it quickly.

Semper VMS - In VMS We Trust.
_________________________________________________________
Otter: Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take
       these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons.
       But that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I
       think we have to go all out. I think that this situation
       absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done
       on somebody's part. 
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it. (Animal House)