VMS NewsGroup

(Originally posted in Usenet's net.general. This is here only because it appears to represent my first set of electronic tracks on the network landscape.)

Microtel Pacific Research hereby seconds the proposal for a net.vms news group.

We have dual Vaxen, both 780's, one apiece VMS and 4.1x bsd. We feel that this situation cannot be that uncommon and that there is a large potential for valuable VMS interchange on this network.

We LIKE both VMS and UNIX, and feel that each does a satisfactory job of addressing a certain set of requirements.

Two topics that it might prove very worthwhile to discuss are:

1. UNIX emulation on VMS. We are running the HCR UNITY package ( will post a review in a bit ).
2. Cross-fertilization. The following are just some of the ideas we are working on, and we hope to have deliverables in a matter of months:
   • porting UUCP to native-mode vms (Using the DEC C compiler)
   • porting vi to native-mode vms ( '' )
   • building a VMS-style lock manager for UNIX
   • building disks from which either VMS or UNIX can be booted.

As for the 'vms.silly' idea... What's wrong with arguing the relative merits of VMS and UNIX? We spend hours doing it and enjoy it hugely.

Tim Bray, Microtel Pacific Research

( ...microsoft!ubc-visi!mprvaxa!tbray )