why learn UNIX

[Dr. Robin Lake]

In:
Message-ID: <3700002 at hpfcph.HP.COM>

>[discussion of UNIX vs. VMS manuals, and why one should learn UNIX]
>
>Two comments.  First, while UNIX manuals aren't designed with beginners in
>mind, they DO tell you a great deal that you will have trouble finding in
>VMS manuals - file formats, for instance.  Second, UNIX is a fairly open 
>system that encourages experimenting.  This is aided by the information   
>available in the manuals.
>
Also, there are some things that just seem to be impossible with VMS.  We
often deal with data files of long (2K bytes +++) lines.  We would like
to transmit them via a terminal emulation (say, cu) into a VMS file.

1.  It is not easy (read "baroque") to create a file on VMS that has
a long line length.
2.  You can't create the file via a terminal login.  VMS just won't take
lines longer than some "small" limit (as I recall, 232 bytes) via a port
it thinks is a terminal.

The "pure" byte stream philosophy of UNIX has been very nice to deal with.
The DECShell under VMS can do no better in dealing with this problem than
DCL does.

Disclaimer:  This reflects only my own opinion and not that of my employer.

Rob Lake
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