[Info-vax] OpenVMS in the future, Open sourced or Closed? Intent is to keep it...

[David Froble]

seasoned_geek wrote:
> On Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 10:09:28 AM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>>>>> seasoned_geek wrote:
> 
>>>>>> As was pointed out by Hoff. Building VMS from source requires 
>>>>>> phenomenal setup and significant resources.
>> Could you point out where I wrote that?  While I did indicate that the 
>> build -- back when I was familiar with it -- was complex and it was very 
>> much tailored to the then-current clusters, but nothing precludes 
>> simplifying and productizing the build.  Productizing the build would 
>> be a moderate-sized project, and the complexity here comes largely from 
>> the scale.   The build is a collection of specific tools and data 
>> files, and a whole lot of DCL.
> 
> Hoff, you are a highly intelligent individual. When you state something is complex and that _you_ had difficulty setting it up when you had "direct" access to the people responsible for it . . . 
> 
>> There are no specialized hardware requirements, beyond the entirely 
>> unsurprising "more is faster".
> 
> Currently one needs something other than a sub $300 X86 to build it on, correct?

I'm willing to bet my "betting dollar", (which I no longer have since 
losing it to Bob), that the 2 EV6 and one EV5 based systems I have could 
perform the build, if I had all the code and procedures.  So, no, the 
hardware should not be a problem.

If you use emulators, yes, today's sub $300 x86 systems could perform 
the build.  If an old VAX could do the job, today's HW would be much faster.