[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Paul Raulerson]

On Oct 6, 2009, at 6:42 PM, P. Sture wrote:

> In article <mailman.29.1254803697.18305.info-vax_rbnsn.com at rbnsn.com>,
> Paul Raulerson <paul at raulersons.com> wrote:
>
>> Not really Paul, most of it is just "the voice of experience" kind of
>> stuff.
>> C is a really simple language, and though people may argue about it,
>> it is really very much like PDP-11 Macro assembler. You can get  
>> yourself
>> into trouble by not understanding what you are doing, but to  
>> compensate
>> for that, you can pretty much do *anything* you want to do.
>>
>> Buffer over-runs can be a concern, and where they *are* a concern,
>> then use a different technique. :)
>
> That's a shame, because I come from a generation where C was not  
> taught
> at school or college (at least where I attended), and I keep coming
> across comments like "any idiot knows not to use xyz", but  
> unfortunately
> nobody taught me why.
>

I didn't really learn C until the late 1970s. At that point, it made a  
whole lot of
sense, since it was about as close to the machine (well PDP-11) as
was assembler.

I do think something like an apprenticeship  / journeyman / master
program for programmers would be better in a lot of ways than
saying someone who just came out of school knows how to program.

Not saying that applies to you mind you, but when you CS grads who
only know "the Microsoft Way" you have to wonder what they are teaching.

At my day job, we are an assembler shop, and we can teach anyone
how to program in assembler, and do it well, quickly, and with really
satisfying results.

A lot of us like COBOL too. :)



> It does reinforce my opinion, which was very real in the UK at one  
> point
> in time, that the college professors and lecturers wanted to create a
> high priesthood of those who understood C and damn the rest.
>
> Meanwhile their payrolls and pensions were being processed with  
> COBOL or
> PL/I or Pascal. And those folks _really do scream_ if not paid on  
> time.
>

There are payroll systems written in C that work just as well as COBOL,
with just a few problems. I wouldn't want to maintain one, but they are
out there.



> -- 
> Paul Sture
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