Help us defend against VMS!

[H. Lynn Tilley]

In article <68 at musky2.MUSKINGUM.EDU> terrell at musky2.UUCP (Roger Terrell) writes:
>
>VMS ADVANTAGES:
>   - VMS has a *friendlier* user interface than any variety of UNIX.

	Give UNIX a little time here.  UNIX until recently was not sold
	by AT&T as a strong commercial competitor to MVS, CMS, VMS it is
	being sold in that light now and is going to evolve into a very
	friendly user interface. (Witness the recent agreement with 
	IBM, AT&T and MicroSoft to develop a common user interface for DOS/OS2
	UNIX and A/IX.)

>   - VMS is much more secure, ...
	
	Depends on whos' UNIX you are running. The term here is probably
	UNIX is a more open system than VMS which is very desirable in an
	university setting.  Students are free to wander around the UNIX
	system, view all but the most confidental files, etc.  This is a 
	very big plus for computers in academics.  It helps students understand
	their relationship to everyone else.

>   - VMS documentation blows UNIX documentation out of the water (someone 
>pointed out that you don't find VMS manuals in a bookstore;  that is correct,
>but it is not bad.  

	As for finding them in the bookstore, remember this is
	a capitalist society.  The books on UNIX are there because there
	is a very large UNIX market and therefore there is a lot of money
	to be made in UNIX help books, there is not much money to be made 
	in the VMS help book market (not that people justing sitting down
	at the terminal of a VMS machine won't need as much help).  

>It is because VMS is so much larger and is designed for
>a larger type of machine).

	UNIX is small, it's a marvel of compactness.  That is one of the 
	beauties of the system, it can grow with the size of your machine.
	UNIX is also extremely portable.  The code is approximately 95% 
	machine independent and requires very little effort to port to other
	architectures.  UNIX, unlike any other operating system will run on
	everything from a PC to the biggest Cray.  It is the only operating
	system that will run on everything that IBM makes (you don't call a 
	3090 and big machine).  It is simpler to say, UNIX was not designed 
	to run on *a* machine, it was designed to run on all machines.
	
>   - The editors on VMS (TPU especially) are quite powerful.

	Try emacs and a few of the other editors available for UNIX boxes.

>UNIX ADVANTAGES:
>   - The UNIX shell "languages" are much better than DCL.
>The thing that I prize VMS most for is its powerful software development
>tools.

	UNIX is a better development system than VMS. UNIX provides a
	full featured programming langauge with its shell command set 
	and awk. High level languages are used to provide specific interfaces
	where they do not already exist.  These tools allow rapid program 
	definition and prototype development.  VMS program development 
	is largely high level language based.  Besides, UNIX was developed
	as a program development system, not a run-time system like VMS.

	Before I get flamed to badly let me fully acknowledge DEC's progess
	in this area.  Their development system is good and it is getting 
	better.  Though the ability of Digital to support the programming 
	staff for both Ultrix and VMS may soon come into question.  Programming
	staffs are expensive and with the recent Ultrix debacle and massive
	standardization on SVID UNIXes, Digital has definitely got to redirect
	its efforts in the operating system market.  Again, I think VMS is
	a good Operating system and it does have its place.  Without getting 
	to corney here, UNIX should not be thought of as an operating system,
	UNIX is a programming philosophy, thinking of it a merely an operating
	system sales UNIX short.
-- 
    |   Henry L. Tilley                 UUCP: {cbosgd|uunet}!ukma!ukecc!lynn
    |   University of Kentucky          CSNET: lynn at engr.uky.edu       
    V   Engineering Computer Center     BITNET: lynn%ukecc.uucp at ukma  
    O   voice: (606) 257-1752           ARPANET: lynn at a.ecc.engr.uky.edu