[Info-vax] HP adds OpenVMS Mature Product Support beyond the end of Standard Support

[Paul Sture]

Craig A. Berry wrote:

> On 1/30/14, 3:44 PM, Keith Parris wrote:
>> The OpenVMS doc. set is insulted by being compared to man pages. :-)
>> Take a look for yourself, at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/os84_index.html
>>
>> It provides a detailed description of all the APIs -- both system
>> services and run-time libraries. There is enough detail that you know
>> exactly how VMS is supposed to act, and enough that you wouldn't have to
>> know how VMS itself does it in order to replicate the same behavior.
>
> The VMS docs are great, but even with VMS the reference implementation
> is the only authority for how things actually work. Just the other day I
> got a return value of SS$_INVFILFOROP from SYS$CHECK_ACCESS, which is
> not one of the documented return values for that service. Surely there
> are dozens or hundreds of corner cases like that such that a
> reimplementation from the docs would have lots and lots of subtle
> differences that would make bringing over to NewVMS an application of
> any complexity difficult and risky.

Yes.  What you have asked for there is backwards compatibility
*with bugs faithfully reproduced*.

That would add significant complexity to such a project (and possibly
require knowledge of existing internals - oops).  You'd also have to
document any reproduction of existing bugs quite carefully, which could
be a major project in itself.

I don't think that NewVMS wants or needs to inherit such baggage and
yes, should NewVMS ever come to fruition there will be applications that
depend on subtle (or not so subtle) bugs and therefore will break.

TBH I don't think I've ever come across a major VMS release which hasn't
broken *something*, especially in complex apps which get close to the
system.

> This assuming that the gigabucks and/or scores of well-qualified
> volunteers with lots of time on their hands suddenly materialize.

Let's put it this way.  I ain't lifting a finger to help HP without
adequate remuneration, and I suspect there are many others who feel
the same way.  The quantitative meaning of "adequate" will no 
doubt vary greatly and I suspect many would want a significant
premium over market rates to overcome the "Once bitten twice shy"
factor if HP is involved.

-- 
If you make it well enough, you give it immortality.” -- Ernest Hemingway