[Info-vax] VMS FAQ (was Re: Where to locate software)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2016-06-10 02:01:47 +0000, David Froble said:

> The Wizard (Stephen Hoffman) maintained the FAQ while he was at DEC et 
> al, and I do believe he has a copy on his web page Hoffman Labs.  So, 
> it's still available, but perhaps a bit dated, just like VMS.

The 2006-vintage OpenVMS FAQ:

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/vmsfaq also known as 
http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1

I looked at updating the FAQ and even started porting the FAQ text to 
more modern tools — the FAQ is written in DEC/TTI Document SDML, and 
I'm not inclined to buy a license for that — and slowly realized that 
both the old text format and the segmented newsgroup distribution was a 
whole lot of work and for rather less results than are available with 
other approaches and tools.

> While helpful, some feel this should be provided by the OS vendor.  Not 
> sure it matters, as long as it's available.

The recommendations around how software kits and open source packages 
are organized and configured best come from the vendor, as they're the 
ones that inherently establish the related standards.   For any OS 
vendor, this (in decreasing order of preference) is either with 
explicit recommendations and associated tools and frameworks (e.g. app 
bundles, sandboxes, containers, etc), through folks mimicking 
conventions based on what the vendor themselves present and document, 
or by whatever code perambulations the particular vendor happens to 
throw over the wall for end-user folks and third-party folks to deal 
with that particular week.    As for user opinions, there are already 
various recommendations posted both in this thread and around the 'net. 
 Many are good, some IMO not so good, and none that I've encountered 
are even remotely forward-looking.

Were I to tell you how to configure your package, I'm just another bozo 
on this bus.    I can assure y'all that some of my opinions here would 
be unpopular with the crowd that is used to OpenVMS as it is.

I've been considering offering a "Alternate Future OpenVMS" 
presentation for the boot camp, covering my opinions around this topic 
and other drag-VMS-forward topics.  Whether that'd even be of interest 
to the session reviewers or attendees?   No sé.   Certainly not 
something I'd expect VSI to implement, either.   It's far outside any 
presentation I've encountered at a previously boot camp or symposium, 
so there's that.  But I digress.

> Don't know if Steve is taking and including new submissions for the FAQ.

Have you looked at the HL web site?   ~1800 articles.  With a way to 
start discussions.  That's where I've been putting articles.   Articles 
which can be longer than the quick-hit FAQ-style Q&A format and 
discussions.

If I were over at VSI, I'd have a web content management system 
deployed for the content (and a whole lot less of the stock photos), 
and — for discussions — I'd be pushing for either a Stack site, or 
would be using the existing Stack Overflow and related sites and tags.  
 Discussions locally require forum administration and some very gentle 
moderation, or the forums tend to become filled with spam or vitriole.  
 No, I wouldn't use Notes and the Notes-News or other gateways.  At 
least not until Notes gets dragged forward.  But I digress.


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