[Info-vax] Internationalization

[Dave Froble]

On 12/31/2018 7:00 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
> Den 2018-12-31 kl. 08:14, skrev Dave Froble:
>> On 12/30/2018 8:25 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> On 2018-12-30, Dave Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
>>>> On 12/29/2018 4:46 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> VAX, Alpha or Itanium are unlikely to see any work on UTF-8, and
>>>>> certainly not until well after the x86-64 port and a pile or three of
>>>>> other work is completed.
>>>>
>>>> There are no new VAX, Alpha, or itanic chips.  They are DEAD!
>>>>
>>>
>>> Unless there's something I am unaware of, you can still buy new
>>> Itanium systems.
>>
>> For a short time, yes, but not for long.
>>
>>>> If anyone was to put significant work into any of those three
>>>> environments, they're probably also asking to be dead.  There is no
>>>> known (to me) reasons for any such activity.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Based on VSI's offerings, there is clearly still a need for supported
>>> Alpha systems. It doesn't matter that the Alphas might be emulated
>>> Alpha systems because it means people are still running Alpha based
>>> code in production.
>>
>> VSI has already addressed this, with Versions 8.4 2L1 and 2L2.  These
>> are VSI releases, not HP releases, which takes HP(e) out of the
>> picture.  While they may have on on going releases,
>
> Can you explain that "may have on on going releases".

No Nan-Erik, I'm not VSI.  I cannot say what they might do.  I can make 
some guesses.

>> they have already addressed the need to have their own release.  Short
>> term, this is good.  Long term, after the port is completed, the goal
>> will be to have everyone possible on x86 systems.
>>
>
> We are currently on Alpha 8.4-2L2 but note that both 8.5 (the release
> that includes the new VSI TCPIP V10.6) and 9.2 (the first production
> release for x86-64) are part of the roadmap for Alpha.
>
> It is somewhat questionable if our environment ever will be on x86.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

>> And yes, there may be those stuck on Alpha.
>>
>>> Of course, it's possible that the systems are effectively frozen
>>> (apart from, say, security patches), but I wonder if anyone is
>>> wanting to run new applications, or to extend existing applications,
>>> on their Alpha systems ?
>>
>> There isn't, as far as I can see, a good reason to do so.
>>
>> But, what do I know ??????
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>>
>
> Well, the world does not stand still. We have a long list of development
> projects on our Alpha environment. Both updates to the current apps but
> also new applications.
>
> And I do not think that the Alpha offer from VSI was put together only
> for us, so there must be a conciderable number of similar sites.

I think that there may be more sites running old Alphas than anything 
else.  For sure there were enough for VSI to decide they needed an Alpha 
release of their own.  As "their own" HP is out of the picture.

I'm rather sure that the first build of "their own" would be the most 
labor intensive.  While additional releases will have some cost to VSI, 
most likely not near as much, and so perhaps there will be further Alpha 
releases.

If there is a significant number of sites using Alpha VMS, who are 
willing to pay for support, that's chunk of change that VSI needs to 
consider and go after.

You mentioned perhaps never going off Alpha.  Can you suggest reasons 
for that?  DEC made some very reliable stuff, but, in time the costs and 
efforts will increase.  I guess my question is, do reasons for not using 
x86 when it's available exist?

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
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