[Info-vax] Logging systartup_vms.com progress to operator.log VMS 7.3-2

[Simon Clubley]

On 2020-10-15, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> On 10/15/2020 1:49 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> 
>> What happens when something is uninstalled and someone has to remember
>> to reverse the manual changes ?
>
> If somethings gets uninstalled then it need to be removed from
> where ever the startup was defined.
>
> I do not see why removing it from systartup_vms.com
> should be more difficult than removing it from somewhere
> else.
>

Because the whole point is that you should _not_ be removing it manually.

What you should be doing is issuing a command to remove something and
that command is only carried out after dependency checks are performed
and then an automatic removal is carried out using a predefined sequence
of steps without any manual involvement required.

>> 
>> Because it's not as simple as it looks.
>> 
>> That's why every other normal operating system still around (including
>> Windows) has a proper package manager built into it.
>
> What is the package manager for Windows??
>
> MSI is not a package manager.
>

Windows update and the Windows tools to allow you to install optional
Windows components. It only applies to Microsoft products, but it's
still a package manager. Full integrity and dependency checking. Full
support for automatic detection and downloading of updates. Full support
for adding component management tools in a standard way. Etc.

MSI also has many package manager features as it is the Windows version
of RPM. You can't use it to directly scan for 1000s of applications to
install but like the raw rpm command, it does much of what the rest of
a package manager does when it comes to configuring the system to support
a package and managing dependencies. Also, there's no need to manually
edit startup files.

I don't know if you have ever created any MSI install kits, but if you
have not, you should have a look at what you can do with WiX. You might
be surprised.

VMS really needs something with similar functionality to Windows update
or the Linux equivalents.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.