[Info-vax] Learning VMS application programming

[Dirk Munk]

wendellxe at yahoo.com wrote:
> I've been looking for a tutorial book on VMS programming, something akin to Rochkind's _Advanced Unix Programming_. I haven't found anything online, but I've seen mention of these two books. Could anyone comment on their contents and/or recommend something else?
>
>      Writing VAX/VMS Applications Using Pascal (Theo de Klerk, 1991)
>
>      Software Implementation Techniques: Writing Software in OpenVMS, OS/2, UNIX and Windows NT (Donald Merusi, 1995)
>
> Coming from Unix, I'm used to designing around the interaction of small, modular tools and using flat text files as a common interchange format. I need a thorough explanation of how to best design around VMS's heavier process model and relative complexity of the RMS.
>
> I have looked through much of the docs available from HP, but they are not suitable tutorial material.
>
I suppose it all depends on what kind of programs you want to write, 
which language you like to use, and so on. You are not limited to one 
language, you can make executables with modules written in different 
languages, the VMS calling standard makes it possible.

RMS has support for text files of course, but also for database-like 
indexed files. You can even use them with the scripting language DCL.

Lots of possibilities, but what do you want to achieve?