[Info-vax] Hard links on VMS ODS5 disks

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-07-27 02:05, bill wrote:
> On 7/26/2023 2:33 PM, Rich Alderson wrote:

>> Ha!  I still make a living programming in Macro-{10,20}, because 
>> certain tools
>> are written in it and nothing else will do.
>>
> 
> Wait a minute.  Are you saying you still make a living supporting 
> SYSTEM-10 and SYSTEM-20 computers and not just hobbyist machines?
> 
> Brings up  yet another question, I guess.
> 
> I have always wondered why they created the VAX instead of continuing
> development of the PDP-11. I mean, look what INTEL did taking the 8080
> (or maybe even the 8008) all the way to x86-64.

You could argue that this is what DEC did. Except they eventually 
dropped PDP-11 support in hardware and moved it to software emulation, 
and then dropped it altogether. Which just suggest they didn't think 
there was enough value to keep it around.
And doing explicitly as a compatibility mode allowed for a cleaner 
design than what Intel did with the 8080.
I assume you haven't missed all the cursing of that architecture.

> But now I have to wonder why they didn't just continue development of
> the 10 and 20.

Do you really want to open up that wound again? :-D

   Johnny