[Info-vax] Programming languages on VMS

[gérard Calliet]

Le 22/01/2018 à 13:14, johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk a écrit :
> Being pro-active is often helpful, sometimes being willing to
> invest/spend may be more important.
It is not necesserilly a contradiction. Because a community is 
pro-active, investors have a look on her. The "Linux" community could be 
an example of that. But, yes, there is a time where the things have to 
be done.
> 
> E.g. based on personal experience, I would be very surprised if
> a company like AdaCore would refuse a profitable opportunity just
> because it was non-mainstream or unfashionable. (Sometimes I am
> surprised).
I spent months (18 months ago) in negociations with that hope, and the 
answer has been no, no, and no. And it has been sort of wishfull 
thinking, because they say this year the 2 last support contracts for 
VMS finish.

And they are not totally wrong. In their reality, VMS is dead.

Not in mine, and not because I'm a sort of poet, but because I have a 
totally different analysis on life cycles for computer science. There 
are realities beneath the fact that some business critical systems are 
resilient. These facts explain why an adventure like VSI exists. It is 
not a miracle. It is a fact, and a very strange fact, in reality, which 
has to be analyzed.

And I'll not give for no money my analysis to AdaCore :) We'll see who 
will be rich in ten years :)

> 
> But for that opportunity to happen at all needs customers (or
> even just one customer with sufficient money) to be willing to
> think about spending, and for both parties to perceive 'value'
> in what they get in return.
Here is the secret. 'Value' is polysemous. IBM has a strong bureaucratic 
added value. Linux idealists have a strong faith about the 'good' added. 
VMS, who is neither the cathedral, nor the bazaar has her proper value 
added. To be reaveled. If we are more pro-active :)

Gérard Calliet