[Info-vax] Free Pascal for VMS ?

[Dave Froble]

On 5/21/2018 4:54 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
> Den 2018-05-21 kl. 02:58, skrev Arne Vajhøj:
>> On 5/20/2018 5:29 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>>>> On 5/19/2018 3:34 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>> On 5/15/2018 11:38 AM, seasoned_geek wrote:
>>>>>> On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 6:46:17 PM UTC-5, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>>>> And z sales are not that big and there is no reason to expect major
>>>>>>> growth.
>>>>>
>>>>>> One Z-box moves in and 200,000+ x86 servers move out yet you count
>>>>>> both in eaches.
>>>>>
>>>>> IBM does not publish mainframe sales in dollars.
>>>>>
>>>>> But they do publish percentage change since last year.
>>>>>
>>>
>>> 2015    +28.1
>>> 2016    -21.8
>>> 2017    +24.0
>>>
>>> So a 24% growth over the last 3 years. Any company would
>>> say that is pretty good for this volume.
>>>
>>> Now, what was it that Mark Twain said about statistics? :-)
>>>
>>
>> It fluctuates a bit (with release of new generations of servers).
>>
>> But if you look at the long term then there is no growth.
>>
>> Let me increase from 5 to 12 years.
>>
>> 2006     +7.8
>> 2007    -11.2
>> 2008    +12.5
>> 2009    -28.7
>> 2010    +16.4
>> 2011     +0.3
>> 2012     +5.4
>> 2013    -13.4
>> 2014    -23.3
>> 2015    +28.1
>> 2016    -21.8
>> 2017    +24.0
>>
>> I don't think that is a statistical trick.
>>
>> Arne
>>
>
> No, I do not think it is growing long term. Maybe if you measure
> raw performance. Doesn't matter, my point was only that, when thing
> varies that much from year to year, you get very differnt result
> depending on what range you select. And that can be used (not saying
> that you did) to prove a point in any direction.
>
>

Perhaps the discussion of "growth" is looking in the wrong direction.

IBM's strength always was in the big iron market.  And a fine market it 
was, and still is.  Perhaps just maintaining this market is all one 
could ask for, and all one needs to be profitable.

Trying to compare sales of IMB Z series to sales of tablets and phones 
doesn't seem very realistic, or helpful, or sensible, or meaningful, to me.