[Info-vax] Why so much Unix envy?

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2014-09-08 20:55, glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
> Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>
> (snip, I wrote)
>
>>> I am not sure what does and doesn't qualify, but TeX, and
>>> related programs, used the Command Definition Utility, such
>>> that you had to tell DCL about it with a .CLD file. It then
>>> accepted DCL-like command options.
>
>>> I would call that a VMS program, but others might disagree.
>
>> Yes... But TeX was not originally written for VMS. And the question here
>> was what programs were *originally* written for VMS, but written with
>> ease of porting to other operating systems in mind.
>
> But VMS TeX was originally written for VMS, though that is somewhat
> obvious.

Obviously. But that code is already a port from another system, with 
just some VMS specific things added. It was not originally written for VMS.

This whole thread started because someone complained about the 
difficulty in porting some software to VMS since the programmer were so 
Unix-centric in their coding, and I just pointed out that they should 
not throw stones in glass houses, as programs written under VMS was not 
written with any more portability in mind.

I'm not saying anything more than that. VMS programs (or programmers) 
were just not any better than those that were complained about.

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol