[Info-vax] Another "Rendez-vous autour de VMS" in France (report)

[Dave Froble]

On 12/3/2022 4:50 PM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
> Den 2022-12-03 kl. 18:55, skrev Dave Froble:
>> On 12/3/2022 10:04 AM, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>>> Den 2022-12-03 kl. 15:38, skrev Arne Vajhøj:
>>>> On 12/3/2022 9:16 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>> On 12/3/2022 1:28 AM, Hein RMS van den Heuvel wrote:
>>>>>>                           Also interesting to hear/see was
>>>>>> the importance of RabbitMQ.
>>>>> Message queues has become a part of most new solutions today.
>>>>>
>>>>> There are 3 big players in the message queue server market:
>>>>> - RabbitMQ
>>>>> - ActiveMQ/ArtemisMQ
>>>>> - Kafka
>>>>>
>>>>> Note 1: Kafka is not a traditional message queue server, but it is
>>>>> a relevant alternative in some cases.
>>>>>
>>>>> Note 2: various commercial offerings from IBM, Oracle, MS
>>>>> etc. still exist but the open source ones dominate the
>>>>> market.
>>>>>
>>>>> But in many ways the choice of server is not so important
>>>>> as standard protocols has been created to talk to to those
>>>>> servers: AMQP, STOMP and MQTT.
>>>>
>>>> VSI offers:
>>>>
>>>> ActiveMQ server + JVM client (JMS) - https://vmssoftware.com/products/activemq/
>>>>
>>>> Mosquito (MQTT) server - https://vmssoftware.com/products/mosquitto/
>>>>
>>>> RabbitMQ native client (librabbitmq) that I suspect will work with any server
>>>> talking AMQP - https://vmssoftware.com/products/librabbitmq/
>>>>
>>>> Client for MQTT protocol - https://vmssoftware.com/products/paho-c/
>>>>
>>>> Outside of that:
>>>>
>>>> JFP VMS Python (I have not checked VSI VMS Python) comes with
>>>> an AMQP module and it is possible to get the standard stomp
>>>> module working.
>>>>
>>>> RabbitMQ JVM client should work on VMS if the Java version is new enough.
>>>>
>>>> And for those wanting native access then there exist open source
>>>> C code for STOMP protocol (plus I have created VMS wrappers for
>>>> it - https://www.vajhoej.dk/arne/opensource/vms/ grab the vmspstomp
>>>> library).
>>>>
>>>> So VMS does have something in this area.
>>>>
>>>> Arne
>>>>
>>>
>>> Which of these (if any) has a VMS only complete solution?
>>> That is, that doesn't need some "external" Linux (or other)
>>> based server component?
>>>
>>> If I just want to have a message based solution for communication
>>> between different native VMS applications, I do not want to be
>>> dependent on some other system/environment.
>>>
>>> Yes, mail boxes works quite nice, but there are some issues with
>>> having multiple readers on a mailbox. And you can only "buffer" as
>>> much as our mailbox buffer has room for.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> So, would you like a copy of TQUMAN to evaluate and use?  Actually, a 1970s
>> era product developed on RSTS/E, and moved to VMS.  Hey, the price is right.
>>
>
> I have managed DMQ (DEC MessageQ) and developed applications for
> it way back in time. I liked that and it was really nice.
>
> So my main requirements are:
> - Not dependent on having another system for the server part.
> - Not having *anything* to do with Java.
>
> Java might have been a good idea, theoretically, but I have seen
> too many systems and applications go down by performance or other
> technical issues. So no, I'm just not interested.
>
> I googled TQUMAN and it only (I think) come up with this:
> https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.vms/c/xnGcznmuLE4
>
> I cannot tell from that if I want to look at it or not... :-)
>
>

Ok, I'll first try to describe the app.  If there is interest, I will insure it 
can be used outside the environment we've normally used the app, and make the 
code available to anyone who wants to evaluate and/or use it.

A queue file is used to both describe the queues in use, and contain the actual 
messages.  A set of routines exist to use VMS mailboxes to set up the capability 
to receive messages and send messages.

A maintenance program is used to initiate a queue file, to list current 
messages, to add messages to a queue, and other general maintenance.

An operations program is used to run detached, receive messages to add to a 
specific queue, and send a queue message when requested by any program that uses 
one or more queues.

Usage is limited to a single VMS system, no networking involved.

If there is interest, I will need to do a bit of work.  Might be interesting, 
seeing how old the message application now is.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA  15486