[Info-vax] Looking into C-include files on VMS

[Bob Eager]

On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:04:43 -0400, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:

> P. Sture wrote:
>> In article <7kpigjF3af5v3U3 at mid.individual.net>,
>>  Bob Eager <rde42 at spamcop.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:26:50 -0400, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>>>
>>>> VMS did not have a fork command.  It's a "Unixism".  SPAWN will
>>>> create a subprocess.  See HELP SPAWN.  It's a whole different
>>>> programming paradigm.  We have managed to get along without fork()
>>>> for about thirty years.
>>> But with some loss of functionality...  (ducks)
>> 
>> A fine example of British understatement ;-)
>> 
>> 
> If you think "in the VMS paradigm" you'll never miss it!  I've used Unix
> and even done a little programming under Unix but I never used fork() in
> my code.

Of course, that's what you have to do; think in the paradigm of the 
current system. Each system has its own merits, and neither is "better" 
than the other. VMS heavyweight processes are, however, a pain at times. 
The problem with 'configure' is that it was designed to handle 
portability problems across UNIX systems, and was never designed for 
something as different as VMS. And many UNIX adherents think that 
'configure' is a crock anyway.

And yes, I've done a lot of programming on both systems; 26 years on VMS 
and 33 on UNIX...

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