[Info-vax] To MIME or not to MIME

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2018-08-04 kl. 00:58, skrev Stephen Hoffman:
> On 2018-08-03 22:06:57 +0000, Arne Vajhj said:
> 
>> On 8/3/2018 12:00 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>>> On 2018-08-02 12:35:19 +0000, Simon Clubley said:
>>>> On 2018-08-01, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>>>> Well, yes, don't use VMS for mail.  Plenty of other platforms in use 
>>>>> by  those who deal with mail.  VMS doesn't do so.  But in many cases 
>>>>> this doesn't distract from the usefullness of VMS.
>>>>
>>>> I'm amused/sad that in 2018 we still need to have a detailed discussion 
>>>> about how to read MIME messages on VMS.
>>>
>>> Mail processing is a common part of operating servers these days, too.
>>>
>>> Sending and variously receiving messages.
>>>
>>> For both production and for operational uses.
>>
>> That is not my impression.
> 
> I am referring to apps that are sending out and (less commonly) receiving 
> and processing mail messages, and not necessarily to running a 
> general-access mail server.
> 
> Hence my reference to this with the following:
> 
> "Even OpenVMS dabbles in the use of mail, though usually only to "bring you 
> bad news"."
> 
> I've written several OpenVMS-based apps that receive and process email 
> messages.  Works nicely for some tasks.

Agree. I wrote and managed an application on a VMS box that handled all
product tracability communication between central Ericsson systems and
all external production sites around the world. Used mainly DCL scripts
run by DELIVER and tools like MPACK/MUNPACK. Then on the internal side
we had some FTP interfaces against the central MVS system.

My support was moved to some indian company 4-5 years ago and I do not
know what has happened with it. Maybe it still runs...

> 
> I believe I have mentioned Exchange Server and Postfix once or twice, and 
> I've mentioned that OpenVMS is not capable of running without a mail server...

Yes, the VMS system was a kind of "client" to the regular mail environment.

Worked just fine processing a couple of 1000 data files/mails a day for
15+ years, "lights-out". The last years I did very little with it, just
invoicing my on-call agreement each month.