[Info-vax] VMS internals design, was: Re: BASIC and AST routines

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <sno4v1$efp$1 at dont-email.me>, Simon Clubley <clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> writes:
>On 2021-11-24, Chris Townley <news at cct-net.co.uk> wrote:
>> On 24/11/2021 21:45, Hunter Goatley wrote:
>>> On 11/24/2021 1:14 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>>
>>>> VMS should have been designed 5-10 years later on than when it was.
>>>>
>>> 
>>> In a thread of backpedaling inanities, that has to be the most inane.
>>> 
>>> Hunter
>>
>> +1
>>
>
>I am seriously annoyed by that comment Hunter because you have
>completely missed (either accidentally or deliberately) the point
>I am making (and have made before).
>
>Compared to later operating system designs the internal design
>of VMS is a direct product of the 1970s mindset because it is
>ugly, hard to alter, not modular, full of internal hacks such
>as jumping internally all over the place and was designed when
>it was getting close to the end of when assembly language was
>considered to be both an acceptable system implementation language
>and an application language.

What's hard to alter?  Many people say an alternator is difficult to
replace.  I did one two weeks ago.



>VMS has given us great things such as world-leading clustering,
>but that doesn't change the ugly nature of its internal design.

It's design in elegant.  You just can't get past the fact that it's not
unix.



>This has caused major problems going forward as people tried to
>enhance VMS. One such example is the need for a combined 32-bit/64-bit
>address space.

I don't find that all that much of an issue.  



>Another such example is playing out right now as we speak.
>
>The engineers at VSI are talented, experienced and generally skilled
>overall. However, due to how VMS was designed, it has taken even these
>skilled people over 7 years so far to port VMS to x86-64 and they will
>not be finished until the middle of next year at the earliest.

LOL.  I suppose you could do it in a week.  I bow to your greatness.

-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.