[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 02/01/2018 06:10 PM, seasoned_geek wrote:
> On Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 4:38:01 PM UTC-6, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>
>> Who is "you"?  The secretary?  The Credit Union Manager?
>> The PC weenie down the hall who is lucky if he can install
>> a printer?
>>
>> Of course, you are describing systems that cost more than
>> the entire credit union's value but that's OK.  Very few
>> people in this group actually live in this reality.  :-)
>>
> 
> No, I'm describing the original Software As A Service model. A canned system completely supported and maintained by the vendor. It's been around since before the 1980s. Not just credit unions either. Car, motorcycle and truck dealerships have all subscribed to this model for decades. A handful of badge anointed BSVs (Business Systems Vendors) were available for dealers to choose from. They didn't hire IT staff. One employee was shown how to stick a tape in a drive and the nightly backup just happened. All other maintenance was handled by the vendor.
> 

What vendor?  There are no VMS vendors around here.  And no longer any
computer support companies that have the expertise to do anything but
PC's.

All the Car, motorcycle and truck dealerships around here are Windows
shops.  Heck even the pizza joint that ran VMS dumped it years ago.
And do you want to know what the old system meant to the?  They sent
it to the landfill.

> There was a time in the 1980s when VMS and the MicroVAX world were designed for lights out operation. Most of the mundane tasks you mentioned could be handled by a correctly written batch job which ran on a regularly schedule basis. Hell, I know of steel mills which had MicroVAX IIs running in rooms polluted with PCBs so people weren't allowed to enter very often. Fully managed remotely.
> 
> As to the prices on such systems they weren't as much as one would think. Usually $20-60K up front then an annual maintenance contract running $10K or less per year.
> 

Try selling one.

bill