[Info-vax] Suggested DCL enhancement

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 11/3/2020 5:59 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 11/3/2020 1:23 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2020-11-03, Andy Burns <usenet at andyburns.uk> wrote:
>>> Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>> For example, typing:
>>>>
>>>>     $ show device <Ctrl-P>
>>>>
>>>> Any comments ?
>>>
>>> Just don't type it on the console (of certain machines).
>>
>> You lot are a bunch of sarky devils. :-)
>>
>> The Ctrl-P was just an example placeholder character. I did realise
>> shortly after posting however the other use of Ctrl-P and did wonder
>> if someone would comment on it.
>>
>> Nice to see you lot did not disappoint. :-)
>>
>> So now you have all had your fun, what do you think of the idea itself ?
> 
> What's the cost?
> 
> The way I look at it, VMS is an OS for getting things done, not some 
> "desktop" (for lack of another term) system that caters to the user.
> 
> So, what would be the cost of completion, help, and things like that. 
> When I use the word "cost", I'm looking at overhead, not dollars.
> 
> I'm figuring there would be significant compute and other resource 
> overhead for such things, along with significant development efforts.

Given how VMS is used today (practically no end users working at the DCL
prompt), then such enhancements would be very hard to justify.

VSI is not going to sell more VMS licenses by adding
such enhancements.

No customer will switch to VMS or drop switching from VMS, because
of such enhancements.

Arne