[Info-vax] wrong file format

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 12/31/2020 10:41 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 12/31/20 6:07 AM, Dirk Munk wrote:
>> Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 12/30/20 7:59 AM, Dirk Munk wrote:
>>>> Suppose you have a VMS file with fixed record size. That file has no 
>>>> records separators what so ever, it is one long stream of data. VMS 
>>>> can calculate where the records start and end in the file. Suppose 
>>>> it consists out of sets of three records of 100 bytes that belong 
>>>> together. Then you can change the attributes of that file to records 
>>>> of 300 bytes, and in one read operation you will have all the data 
>>>> that belongs together. I've actually used this in the past.
>>>
>>> And that would be an application concept, not really an OS thing.
>>
>> Actually not, since this can only be done because of the way RMS 
>> stores data, and RMS is part of the OS.
> 
> See, there is where we differ in opinion.  I see RMS as an
> application that just happens to ship with VMS.  Like editors,
> compilers and other pieces that ship with the OS but have are
> not really part of it.  Surely VMS will run without RMS present.
> Not all applications need to access files at all.

I would say RMS is part of VMS.

It comes with VMS. It get loaded with VMS. It runs in a privileged mode.
There has never been a VMS without it. There is no documented way of
replacing it. VMS relies on it for many features like reading SYSUAF.
The meta data used by RMS are in the ODS formats. The meta data used
by RMS it also available via system services (SYS$QIO and FAT block).

VMS without RMS would not be VMS.

Arne