[Info-vax] Possible VMS jobs

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 12/19/2018 12:31 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> So, if one is to believe the comments posted here, there are
> a lot of places out there now with homegrown legacy applications
> written in legacy languages still running on VMS (possibly
> even legacy versions on legacy hardware).

We know there are VMS systems out there.

And there may be more than we think.

I am sure that the people behind VSI got to see some numbers at HP
before VSI was created and that those numbers must have looked
interesting because otherwise there would not have been a VSI.

And it seems reasonable to assume that a very large part of
them run at least partly bespoke solutions.

The number of standard solutions only available on VMS is small
and if a standard solution was also available on Unix/Linux/Windows,
then they likely would have migrated years ago.

And the vast majority of these systems was introduced decades ago
(if recent then another platform would have been chose).

That indicates that the main language must be one of the traditional
languages (Cobol, Fortran, Pascal, C and maybe Ada or PL/I).
DEC C++, Java, PHP, Python etc. was not available back then.
Some peripheral stuff may have been added later in newer languages.

So yes they should be there.

>                                                 Any idea how one
> with legacy experience might find these people with the intention
> of seeking some work they might need done?

That is a very good question.

VSI (and HPE) should have some insight based on service contracts
and various purchases.

But that is not available to the public.

Obviously many people know small pieces of the puzzle.

But they may not want to publish it to the public.

I think you should ask for people that know about
VMS systems to send you some info via direct email.

Arne