[Info-vax] Licenses on VAX/VMS 4.0/4.1 source code listing scans

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 12/13/2021 3:51 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 12/13/21 3:44 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 12/13/2021 3:26 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 12/13/21 1:53 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> Those that have a very large problem would not be fine.
>>>>
>>>> Of course IRS could get the same mid-size capability for way
>>>> less money on a different platform, but porting is probably
>>>> expensive. And they do not have any competitors to worry about! :-)
>>>
>>> Expense wasn't the problem.  They have pretty deep pockets. :-)
>>> The problem was the ability to accomplish a port given the constraints
>>> they run under.
>>
>> It is a hard thing to port. The CPU/memory/disk requirement are
>> mid size. But the requirements are very large.
>>
>> US Tax rules supposedly consist of 2500 pages of law and 9000
>> pages of regulations. That is 29 volumes of 400 pages. Hard
>> problem.
>>
>> And anybody think that they would simplify rules to make a
>> port easier or even just freeze rules during a port??
> 
> You missed the big one.  No down time.  The new system would have
> to go into operation functioning perfectly from not just day one,
> but from minute one.  It's a 24 hours a day 365 days a year (except
> every four years when it is a 366 day) job :-).  How many large
> scale porting projects have you seen accomplish that?

Typical mainframe to distributed migrations change it from
like 20 hours of operation to 24 hours operation, so that
is typical a significant improvement when migrating. New
systems are practically always 24x7 without the nightly
batch jobs.

But I do not know IRS service availability.

Arne