[Info-vax] Hard links on VMS ODS5 disks

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-07-27 15:03, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
> Den 2023-07-27 kl. 14:46, skrev 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.
> 
> PDP-11 software that was run within the VAX hardware environment was
> probably just moved to the VAX/VMS platform.

Over time for sure. Original VMS was running almost everything in 
compatibility mode. But much VMS software started out as ported PDP-11 
software, and then expanded and improved uppon.

> Software that needed the PDP-11 platform (maybe due to special
> interfaces and I/O cards) probably stayed on real PDP-11 hardware.
> I'm sure there was many real PDP-11 systems alive well after that
> the PDP-11 emulation in VAX was removed.

Sure. You could even argue that the PDP-11 outlived the VAX.

But I think DEC's approach was nicer and better than Intel's. It's just 
that Intel just managed to grab the whole market. Technological merit 
had nothing to do with it.


   Johnny