[Info-vax] For sale: VAXstation 4000/90 128MB Fully Working and Tested

[Dave Froble]

On 6/30/2022 12:36 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 6/30/2022 9:58 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 6/29/2022 10:01 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>> Erik (the boss) is 80, I'm 76, Bill in early 70s, and Niel is late 60s, and
>>> really want to retire.
>>>
>>> We made a pitch to the customers.  Buy the software package, and we will give
>>> you a year or whatever we can to train new people.  They said they didn't
>>> want to be in the software business.  (Almost every business for the last
>>> 30-40 years has been in the software business, in some way.)
>>>
>>> Largest customer, now being run by original owner's children, had their
>>> auditors come in, and were told:
>>>
>>> You can't use that ancient OS (VMS) ...
>>> You can't continue with that ancient language (Basic) ...
>>> You need a relational database ...
>>> And a few more ridiculous claims ...
>>> Above all, "you can't count on these old geezers" ...
>>>
>>> They refused to give them a successful audit ...
>>>
>>> Can't purchase business insurance without successful audit ...
>>
>>  > We have continually offered to help.  Other customers are looking at the
>>  > clusterfuck, and are re-thinking about being in the software business.
>>  > Codis does all they need to run their companies.  The main problem is
>>  > the age of the people involved.  We'd really like to do something about
>>  > that, but if we could, we'd be rich and in the medical field, not software.
>>  >
>>  > Erik has told the customers, the company is shutting down at the end of
>>  > 2023. We'd like to continue, but we can't make any promises.  We will do
>>  > what we can. But if the beer truck gets us ...
>>  >
>>  > We have told the customers:
>>  >
>>  > VSI is currently supporting VMS, and porting it to x86 ...
>>  > VSI is currently (I hope John) supporting Basic ...
>>  > The auditing firm is a bunch of crooks ...
>>
>> There are some reasons for concerns:
>> - niche OS (VMS)
>> - niche language (VMS Basic)
>> - obsolete language (Macro-32)
>> - probably non-optimal persistence technology (RMS index-sequential files aka
>> NoSQL Key Value Store)
>> - the team getting close to retirement
>>
>> But it is not an urgent problem:
>> - all the software is supported and can be expected to be
>>    supported for many years
>> - the team has not retired yet
>>
>> What you need is a roadmap showing a long term viable future.
>>
>> Obviously I don't know the company or the product that well, so this is
>> pure speculation, but something like:
>> - keep VMS but switch to VMS x86-64, it is supported and even though
>>    Linux is server OS king today then everybody does not need to run
>>    Linux, working with VMS is a learnable skill (someone that know
>>    Linux should be able to learn VMS in weeks)
>> - keep VMS Basic, it is supported and a rewrite would cost a lot of
>>    money and create a lot of bugs that would need to be fixed, and
>>    programming in VMS Basic is a learnable skill (someone that
>>    know VB.NET/Delphi/C should be able to learn VMS Basic in a few
>>    months)
>> - get rid of the Macro-32, rewrite to VMS Basic or C, too difficult to
>>    get people onboarded with Macro-32
>> - change to a relational database, besides looking better in the audit
>>    report you will actually get some benefits in the form of less code
>
> - and ensure that frontend/UI technology is modern, there are so much
>   to choose from, I would suggest Grails - not the most common choice,
>   but I think it would be easy to integrate with your backend
>
> Arne
>

Why?  There isn't much front end usage anymore.  Just about everything has been 
automated, with rules and procedures specific to the vertical market these 
customers are in.  Most customer input comes in via web servers communicating 
with Codis.  Not much happening on terminals anymore.

-- 
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