[Info-vax] api for ncp

[Dave Froble]

On 7/30/2021 11:27 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> 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.

Of course, "we can" is always true.  Perhaps expensive.  But perhaps not 
the right decision.

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

What else can they do?

> Then upper management decides the old needs gone.

Usually those making such decisions are not capable of making good 
decisions.

You mean like the port of VMS to the itanic?

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

I seem to recall at least one VMS engineer who looked forward to the 
port ...

> 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.

Yeah!  Get rid of the old fossils so we can do what we want to do. 
Which may not bear much resemblance to what the company needs.

> 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}.

Too many "whatevers" for that to say much.

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

Like the port of VMS to the itanic?

> 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.

It has to do with desire.  Desire to keep costs down.  Desire to "do 
something".

> [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.

Sooner or later, something new is required, and isn't easy/possible in 
the old system(s).  Not "if", but "when".

Note, while I took some cheap shots at the port of VMS to the itanic, 
the reality was that those who would need to continue development and 
production of Alpha just  WERE  NOT  GOING  TO  DO  SO !!!  Alpha was 
dead, dead, dead ...

When Intel threw a bone to the people using Alpha, by coughing up $200M 
or so, if I remember correctly, things moved on.



-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
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