[Info-vax] api for ncp

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2021-07-30 14:09:46 +0000, calliet gérard said:

> I don't need a path forward in the situation, just a path backward :) - 
> They need training for a totally freezed platform, for which they will 
> make support for more than again 10 years.

I can't count the number of times I've heard variations of that same 
"we can't" story told and re-told.

With staff dutifully and earnestly repeating what management has told them.

Then upper management decides the old needs gone.

And the same staff immediately commenced repeating the new management position.

I've met various cases where the porting or remedial work was triggered 
by the departure of specific long-timers and/or specific senior folks, 
too.

But yes, you're stuck with an installation of {whatever} with a whole 
lot of {whatever} and clearly any resolution of this is blocked by 
{whatever}.

Right up until upper management nopes some or all, switches directions, 
and off we go on some whole new IT adventure.

Put differently, I've met claims similar to what this installation 
professes, and the port or the remediation or replacement work started 
the next day.

[eg: work on Alpha is ending, we're porting to Itanium. Writing this on 
the day after the last available shipments of Itanium processors from 
Intel, too.]

It's really quite striking to watch the speed of these IT transitions, 
particularly after how slowly and painfully everything IT was working 
prior.

If this particular case follows the general pattern I've met elsewhere, 
I'd expect to see incremental ports to Linux and Ada, absent some 
moderate-sized entity adding support for semi-recent Ada on OpenVMS 
x86-64 and this addition alongside a sudden willingness to upgrade from 
OpenVMS VAX to OpenVMS x86-64. This as the patience with the older 
stuff ages out.



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