why learn UNIX

[Robert Cray]

In article <3700002 at hpfcph.HP.COM> dalem at hpfcph.HP.COM ( Dale McCluskey) writes:
>[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 

VMS does have many file formats, which make things difficult.  UNIX has
only one, so of course its not hard to find documentation.  I agree that
if you are used to UNIX manuals, VMS manuals are difficult to get used to,
but I have always found what I was looking for.

>
>It is also very  flexible.  An example of this is that one could write a
>shell that would run on UNIX and look like DCL (VMS's shell),  but you
>would have a pretty tough time doing the reverse.

I was not aware anywone had written a VMS shell (or would want to) for UNIX.
There are at least 3  UNIX shells (Eunice, DEC Shell, LBL Tools) available
for VMS.  
It all depends on what you want to do.  UNIX is great for software development,
VMS is great for production.  Both have strengths and weaknesses.  It is
a waste of time arguing over which one is "better".

						--robert
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