[Info-vax] Learning VMS application programming

[David Froble]

JF Mezei wrote:
> On 14-09-07 10:51, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> 
>> Might?  No.  I can say with certainty that I was referring to 
>> inner-mode programming when I was using the phrase "system 
>> programming".  No "might" needed there.
> 
> From the start, I could see the differentiation between "programming
> application that use system services" and "programming at kernel level".
> 
> Someone new to VMS wouldn't start with programs that are at system
> level, so it was obvious to me that the reference was to the use of
> system services (and I would include the LIB$ in there even though I am
> aware there are big differences at how they run, to the average
> user-mode programmer, they are just other callable routines).
> 
> (Obviously, to someone like Mr VAXman who eats, lives and sleeps in
> kernel mode and rarely emerges up to user level, these definitiosn of
> "system programming" would be quite different. But there are not many Mr
> VAXman's in this universe/reality :-)
> 
> 

It's funny how you throw out some of those remarks.

I'm willing to bet my special "betting dollar" (wait, Bob won it), well, 
  anyway, that most of the stuff Brian writes does NOT run in Kernel or 
Exec mode.  Why?  Because except for when you need to do so, it's a 
really BAD idea to be in those modes.

For many things, the system services are provided to allow programmers 
to achieve the things they need to do.

The RTL routines, LIB$, and such, many times are just a jacket routine 
for a system service.  Not all, but some.