[Info-vax] Reimplementing VMS, was: Re: HP adds OpenVMS Mature Product Support beyond the end of Standard Support

[JF Mezei]

On 14-02-04 13:29, Simon Clubley wrote:

>> 2. Apparently the idea that nothing but the original VMS is capable of
>> doing the job is no longer true.
> 
> I have not thought that was true for many years now.


When you switch religion, there is generally a one to one translation of
items. different name for "god", different day dedicated to worship,
different holidays, different dress code etc.

But moving from VMS is more complex because there isn't a one to one
correspondance for so many things. No logical names on Unix. No real
clustering, no ASTs etc. and unix brings new concepts that were not
available on VMS.

If your VMS apps were always designed as Unix apps and never really
relied on very VMS specific facilities, the move is easier. But if your
apps are very "VMS", then this isn't a question of translating them to
Unix, it is a question of completely rethinking how they should work.

It is bit like changing species to one which has 1 arm wth 3 hands
attached, and each hand has only 4 fingers. You are forced to do thinngs
very differently. And you find that some thing are easier to do, and
some harder.

The problem is that to do a proper migration to Unix, you don't need a
guy who understands VMS well, you need a guy with Unix expereince who
can tell you the best way to get things done in Unixland. Hence, we are
worthless.




(*) Windows is a trademarke of Microsoft Corp. Weenzoze is a trademanrk
of Vaxman industries)