[Info-vax] SPM 3.4 installation issue on VMS 6.1

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Thursday, 14 January 2016 22:50:17 UTC, David Froble  wrote:
> johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> 
> > VMS is VMS, it is not UNIX and it is not Windows, and vice versa.
> > Depending on what you're trying to achieve, it may be helpful for
> > you to understand more about what VMS is and does. If you haven't
> > already got the online documentation, get hold of a copy from
> > somewhere.
> 
> Stop it!
> 
> In suggesting that someone read the entire "grey wall", you're just giving Steve 
> more ammunition to say VMS is behind the times.  After all, people don't have to 
> do that to use *ix or weendoze, do they?
> 
> Just how much does a user have to know to run Solitare ??????????????????
> 
> (Yes, Dave still has the "grey wall", and refers to it at need ..)

For the avoidance of doubt :) I'm suggesting that people have the docs
*available* (and not necessarily in the non-searchable "grey wall" 
version, though it does have its advantages).

I'd love to suggest that people used the concise and task-focused
MicroVMS docset but as far as I know it was only ever hardcopy and
it never got updated (much?) after its first release. Shame, because
it was  the common 80% of what 80% of people need, in handy
A5ish-size manuals.

It's possible to do some stuff on VMS without using the docs much.
Sometimes it'll even work right, especially with judicious use of
the HELP command. But having the docs online can be helpful to the
non-expert (which is most of us, at some stage).

Even if something doesn't work, then because it's VMS rather than a
"modern" OS, the marvellous command "HELP /MESSAGE" (?) can under
many circumstances be used instead of referring to the System
Messages and Recovery Procedures book (exceptions apply). But I
thought I'd used enough newsgroup space without mentioning that,
and now look what you did :)

Obviously now that every young person understands Linux shells and
desktops (all of them) and Windows UI (all of them from DOS and
Win 3.1 to Win10, plus Powershell) from school age, and the
faithful understand OS/X once they have been confirmed into the
Church of Jobs, there's little need for reliable OS documentation
(or, heaven forbid, actual training, or at least time to learn
stuff) for any version of Windows or Linux. (Yes I'm fully
aware of MSDN etc, I even paid for my own copy for a few years back
in the 1990s).

Personally I don't have those skills, which is one reason why my
preferred Linux has for a long time been SuSe. Unlike many other
Linuxes, SUSE has manuals for common user stuff and important admin
stuff.

Better still, sUsE manuals actually match the software supplied.
That's handy when compatibility from a user or admin or programmer
point of view is seen as a nuisance rather than as a feature, and
changing syntaxes and behaviours is rampant.

Meanwhile, DCL has worked largely compatibly from RT11 (V4? early
1980s?) through IAS/RSX to VMS (today) and maybe elsewhere.
 
Have a lot of fun.