[Info-vax] Pathworks or one of its descendants on x86

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/21/2018 10:29 AM, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
> Den 2018-02-21 kl. 15:46, skrev Arne Vajhøj:
>> On 2/21/2018 8:57 AM, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:
>>> Den 2018-02-21 kl. 05:40, skrev terry-groups at glaver.org:
>>>> On Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 7:40:05 AM UTC-5, Kerry Main wrote:
>>>>> New OpenVMS file system notes: 
>>>>> <http://www.hp-connect.se/SIG/New_File_System_VMS_Boot%20Camp_2016.pdf> 
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Those slides say "Fully compatible API − 99% of applications run 
>>>> without
>>>> modification" which I interpret as meaning RMS or RMS emulation. If 
>>>> that
>>>> is the case, any file-serving to PC clients is going to need to do the
>>>> same "if it isn't fixed-512, read the file a record at a time and munge
>>>> the record attributes" that PATHWORKS did before sending it to a PC
>>>> client. I think I'll stick with my "an inefficient choice for anything
>>>> other than accessing files that must reside on the VMS system" comment
>>>> until convinced otherwise.
>>>
>>> I have never seen file serving from VMS as anything but a convienient
>>> way of sharing files that was either created on VMS, or was needed
>>> by something on the VMS system. For a general "file server", there
>>> was easier solutions.
>>>
>>> Was using VMS for file sharing/serving since PCSA 1.2 or 2.0 (I think).
>>
>> Same here. PathWorks was pretty cool late 80's early 90's. Long time ago.
>>
>> The ability to move files between VMS and PC's in a transparent
>> way is very convenient and I do think such a feature has some
>> users.
>>
>> But I think that the fraction of these users where performance
>> is important would be very small.
> 
> And today, for files created on VMS that has PC users (by far the
> most common direction), it is easier to run a web server and just
> present the directory for download.
> 
> I have a hard time seeing VMS as a general file server today...

That was what I was trying to agree to.

This is not production for the large number of users, but convenience
for the system manager.

Which is why performance should not matter.

Arne