[Info-vax] OpenVMS printing to PDF

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2015-05-19 03:43:03 +0000, David Froble said:

> Now I know that I'm being a bit sensitive about this, but, it's me, and 
> it's how I read things.  When I see wishes for stuff distributed with 
> an OS, I wonder where there is any room for third party applications.
> 
> That's what I do.  I solve problems.  I solve them by first 
> understanding them, and then designing and implementing applications to 
> address the needs.  No room left for me if "everything" is bundled with 
> the OS.  Nor is it possible for that to happen.
> 
> So when I see requests for much to be provided with an OS, I feel that 
> perhaps some of that is trying to have "one size fits all".

VSI is competing with folks that do include a whole lot more with their 
kit, though.

As for your case, it's a case of all (most) boats rising as the 
platforms increase in scale and scope.  The less infrastructure you or 
I have to deal with beyond your own application software, the more we 
can focus on working on our applications and not wrestling with VSI 
software, or with open-source.  As I've mentioned a while back, it took 
me roughly fifty lines of code to add a web browser window into an 
application — yes, there was massive code underneath all that — but it 
was much easier for me to instantiate that window on the client and 
then get the server to fill it with data.   I didn't have to write or 
embed my own rendering.  Much like Mr Munk asking for a tool that does 
forms, that's already available with PDF forms 
<https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/how-to/create-fillable-pdf-forms-creator.html> 
or with HTML rendered into a dedicated web browser component window 
within some mobile tablet running my application display.   Add a 
JavaScript framework, and I can run a whole lot of forms processing and 
basic validation entirely client-side — which offloads the server 
nicely, and it's not that far off a fancy block-mode terminal — or 
server-side with something like Rails or node.js (if you've got the 
time or interest, probably start at <http://nodeschool.io/>).

Now an obvious distinction here is that various of these examples are 
client-side tools and fewer are server-side tools, and where the 
client-side interfaces are going to be much lower-volume on OpenVMS, 
but there are still tools and libraries that I'd want and need 
server-side; tools that allow me to manage and authenticate and control 
and secure and display data to clients.   I would not expect VSI to 
include node.js or similar, but I would expect there to be an XML 
parser, a web server, some common scripting languages, modern security 
and encryption and authentication available and used ubiquitously, and 
other pieces that are now typical of most not-embedded or 
not-stripped-down-for-embedded operating systems.  Current compilers.  
Common libraries.  UTF-8 support.  Etc.  OpenVMS server management 
needs to get massively easier, too.  Maybe mass deployment — had some 
recent questions from somebody rolling out hundreds of OpenVMS servers 
en-mass, and there's no good way to do that without writing your own 
scripting.  If VSI wants to sell hundreds of servers at a go, or more, 
then they're going to need to do some work to make that easier.

The other distinction with features is that if you're looking at what 
is available NOW on other platforms, you're probably looking at what is 
two to five years in the past as far as VSI is concerned.  They need 
time to design and integrate and test and distribute whatever they're 
working on, which means they are going to want to aim at what they 
think the market will be expecting in some number of years.

Do I like that software is getting more and more integrated and many 
packages are getting higher and higher-featured, that many projects are 
getting larger and more complex, and that some projects disappear or 
get forked or a better product comes along?   It's the way of the 
competitive market.  DECnet was nice for its time.  IPv4 and IPv6 are 
where networking is now.  Command line user interfaces work well for 
some few folks, but the vast majority of current and new users can't or 
won't or don't want to use those.   Computers used to be desktops, 
wired to a local server.  Now they're mobile phones and tablets, 
wirelessly connected to dozens of different pools of servers around the 
world.  Times change.  (But to your point, easier OpenVMS server 
management cuts into parts of my business, too.)



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