[Info-vax] VMS porting (again), was: Re: CPython has removed OpenVMS support

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Sunday, 22 December 2013 13:43:22 UTC, Simon Clubley  wrote:
> On 2013-12-22, Gérard Calliet (pia-sofer) <gerard.calliet at pia-sofer.fr> wrote:
> 
> > Le 22/12/2013 10:53, Michael Kraemer a écrit :
> 
> >> Craig A. Berry schrieb:
> 
> >>
> 
> >>> What most open source projects are looking for is the opposite of
> 
> >>> "drive-by" porting, or in other words, they frown on what's known as a
> 
> >>> "patch bomb," a big set of changes that gets everything working with a
> 
> >>> new feature or on a new platform, whereupon the submitter disappears and
> 
> >>> leaves the hard work of maintenance to busy people who may be
> 
> >>> sympathetic but have no experience with or knowledge of said feature or
> 
> >>> platform.
> 
> >>
> 
> >> Do people still think they can maintain an open source release of VMS?
> 
> >>
> 
> > yes
> 
> 
> 
> I am curious, Gerard.
> 
> 
> 
> What is your level of experience with system level programming ?
> 
> 
> 
> Do you have any device driver writing experience ?
> 
> 
> 
> Do you have any kernel maintainence/development experience ?
> 
> 
> 
> Have you ever written a BSP for a RTOS or done any other work to bring
> 
> up a operating system on a new platform ?
> 
> 
> 
> Have you ever written any compilers or worked on maintaining existing
> 
> compilers ?
> 
> 
> 
> A person who can honestly answer yes to the above questions would
> 
> understand the enormity of what you are proposing.
> 
> 
> 
> Your handwaving as well as your tendency to respond with poetic rambling
> 
> instead of answering the questions put to you makes me wonder if you have
> 
> any experience with any of the above.
> 
> 
> 
> You can say something is viable (porting VMS) as much as you like, but that
> 
> doesn't mean that what you say has any basis in reality. You would gain
> 
> far more credibility if you provided detailed responses to the questions
> 
> put to you instead of responding with yet more poetic rambling.
> 
> 
> 
> Your continued refusal to provide any detailed responses to those questions
> 
> makes me think you haven't got a clue about how to actually port VMS to a
> 
> new platform and add the features required by today's operating systems.
> 
> 
> 
> Simon.
> 
> 
> 
> PS: I'm not normally as blunt as this, but Gerard has been waffling on
> 
> about this for a while with his poetic rhetoric, and it's time for him
> 
> instead to give us the detailed insights needed to show how it's possible
> 
> for us to achieve what he wants.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
> 
> Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world


Seasons greetings all.

With the greatest respect to Simon and Gerard:

Can I return to my example of a volume car company trying to build and sell 
minibuses?

People don't have to know about the engineering details of minibuses or of cars 
to realise that using the same approach (to marketing, engineering, sales, 
support) for minibuses as for cars is likely a recipe for disaster. They just 
need a bit of "common sense" (which is something frequently missing from 
corporate HQs, as recent HP history serves to show only too clearly).

A group wanting to spin off a minibus division from a car-centred company 
'just' needs to know where to find the relevant expertise, make the spinoff 
happen, and let the detail experts get on with marketing, building, selling, 
and supporting minibuses. The sad reality is that corporate lawyering is likely 
to be just as important as the engineering skills, and it may well be the case 
that the corporate lawyers are more visible (than the detail engineering 
people) during the process. Different skill sets, different people (usually; 
exceptions may apply).

A group wanting to spin off a minibus division from a car company may not 
necessarily want to lay all (or indeed any) of their cards on the table in 
public while negotiations are still ongoing.

I have no information whatsoever about what is going on behind the VMS scenes 
right now, other than what's been posted here. I do have some historic 
knowledge of complex sw development and support setups, and also some limited 
knowledge of corporate mergers and demergers. The devil is in the detail.

I thought I'd seen an announcement here recently of a forthcoming multi-
presenter session somewhere in the frozen North of Europe (HP and 
independents). Courtesy of Google Groups improvements, I can't find it. *Maybe* 
more details *might* emerge after that event. But it wouldn't be a surprise if 
any real details stayed mostly on a "need to know" basis for a little while 
longer.

Interesting times.

Have a lot of fun.