[Info-vax] Large mailboxes

[Dave Froble]

On 11/27/2020 12:09 PM, Marc Van Dyck wrote:
> Dave Froble formulated the question :
>> Which most likely seemed a huge number, back in 1978.
>>
>> What can be reported, and what can exist, just might not be the same.
>>
>> Run a simple test.  Store the messages, each one unique, then read
>> them back insuring each message was stored and forwarded.  Might be
>> interesting.
>>
> Yes I will do that next monday and report the results here.
>>
>> What was the max memory on an 11/780?  Something like 8 MB?  Yes, it
>> was a virtual memory machine.  But how many messages might the devs
>> have anticipated, back then?
>>
>> There just might be a word integer storing the # of messages, or,
>> maybe VMS doesn't care, and it's some type of list.
>>
> That's what I remembered from the Digital Technical Journal article I
> mentioned.
>
> BTW, the first VAX I worked with had 1.5 MB of DEC memory and another
> MB from a less expensive third party company. This is the kind of
> figure that lets you figure how far we are coming from, and how fast
> it has evolved. Today it's the memory size you get in a wristwatch...
>

This is something it's easy to forget.  HW has made immense advances. 
We've watched, and forget the past.

It is quite unlikely that software developers would not be influenced by 
current (at that time) state of the HW.  And so we have software that 
has some limitations based upon the available HW at the time the 
software software was developed.

Let's understand, much of VMS is ancient.  First released in 1978.  As 
has been discussed, VMS has not had near the upgrades that it should 
have had performed.  It's not just what the security bigots have been 
complaining about, it's the whole OS.  Ports for the most part do not 
include modernization.  Bytes.  Words.  Longwords.  Lots of structures 
that are no longer adequate.

VMS has lots of good ideas.  But rarely can things stand still.  They 
either advance, or by doing nothing, regress.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA  15486