[Info-vax] Where is EISNER:: and who funds it?

[alanfe...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, December 26, 2021 at 5:55:29 AM UTC-5, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2021-12-23, alanfe... at gmail.com <alanfe... at gmail.com> wrote: 
> > On Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 9:23:26 PM UTC-5, xyzz... at gmail.com wrote: 
> >> Our hardware is in a data-center facility in Chelmsford MA. 
> > 
> > So I assume you are from VSI. 
> >
> I'm amazed you don't know who John is by now... 

Why? I've not been active in cov for a long time. Only in Oct of 2021 did I chime in and start using EISNER:: again. Why should I know who he is? And his handle is given as xyzz... at gmail.com. Hardly illuminating!!!

Back in, probably late Sep 2021, it was just on a lark that I thought I'd check the Freeware page and see the status of my contributions. I was disappointed to find that my main one, TO.COM, was languishing un-downloadable. And a rather old version to boot! So I thought I'd update it and resubmit.

Hmmm. Some quick research shows that I reconnected with EISNER:: around Feb 19, 2021, but didn't chime back in until Sep 30, 2021. 

Anyway, so starting Sep 30, 2021, I started using EISNER:: again. And I started to work on my TO.COM so that I could submit an up-to-date version.

Additionally, my last VMS stint ended in 2018, where my main task was -- you guessed it -- moving stuff off of a couple of Alphas. No real users. Just me and a couple of co-workers tending to file transfer stuff. Backups were contracted out to some other company before I arrived. 

Back on EISNER::, I noticed that at least one of the bugs of SET DEFAULT was fixed, and so posted on cov asking about it. It also suddenly occurred to me that I was using EDT with 60 lines or so. Say what?! EDT didn't used to do that, did it? So I added that as a bonus question. Found the release notes for the EDT bit on my own. Still haven't seen anything about SET DEFAULT other than an some old release notes for VMS 5.5-2 documenting at least two of the bugs and saying they would be fixed "in a future release of VMS." The second one was actually a SHOW DEFAULT bug, more or less, and the notes gave an example of it. It is still broken on EISNER:: -- again something with colons. I did some googling, but to no avail. Then I found the old cov post about SET DEFAULT not changing disk when you didn't include a colon in the equivalence name! (See 
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.vms/c/7oHZdsabAcc/m/HlqfDSFcLOYJ
) That has been fixed.

Other than all that, I haven't really been keeping up with VMS much -- until now. So why should I know this John dude?

> He is VSI's compiler expert and is responsible for producing the 
> compilers for x86-64 VMS.

Awesome!

> > Again, who _funds_ EISNER? I don't think anyone has answered that. Is it 100% VSI-funded? The login bit no longer asks for donations.
> Currently VSI. 
> 
> Eisner has had multiple homes over the years. When it was no longer 
> possible to host it at the previous home, VSI offered to provide a 
> home for it.

Very kind of them!

Thirty thumbs up!!!

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

Alan