Help us defend against VMS! -- DEC perspective

[Jacob Gore]

/ comp.unix.wizards / lynn at engr.uky.edu (H. Lynn Tilley) / Mar  6, 1988 /
>[...] let me fully acknowledge DEC's progess
>in this area.  Their development system is good and it is getting 
>better.

But it is costly.  I just got a package of glossy sheets, called

	VAXset: VAX Software Engineering Tools

(by the way, DEC people: note the VAX=VMS implication).

Being a person who not only uses this kind of stuff regularly, but who also
has to regularly convince people who write out checks that the stuff is worth
the money, I built a table of sorts in my mind that compares these tools with
similar tools in the Unix world (ours is BSD-tilted), and their costs.  Let me
write it down:

		VMS world				Unix world

1.
VAX Language Sensitive Editor.		GNU Emacs with language modes (and
					other Emacses -- but we use GNU).

Based on TPU. Support for languages	Freely distributable.  Runs
is distributed with each compiler.	on 36 different machines.  Language
Users will only see it on VAXes.	modes are contributed by users.

2.
VAX Source Code Analyzer.		No obvious equivalent.  Some function-
					ality provided by "tags" facilities for
Claimed to be most effective when	Emacses (or for vi).  Some functionali-
used together with LSE (#1).		ty provided by various "calls" facili-
Users will only see it on VAXes.	ties, but those are usually language-
					dependent.

3.
VAX DEC/Code Management System.		RCS.

Well-connected with other VMS soft-	Freely distributable.  Separate soft-
ware from DEC: interfaces with Ada	ware, so easy interfacing with other
libraries, LSE (I think), etc.		programs (such as 'make') is not
Users will only see it on VAXes,	guaranteed.  Also SCCS, which comes
though they are likely to see similar	bundles with Unix (generally).
tools on other systems.

4.
VAX DEC/Module Management System.	Make.

Interfaces with libraries, CMS.		Some versions interface with
Users will only see it on VAXes,	libraries, RCS and/or SCCS.  Comes
though they are likely to see similar	bundled with Unix, some versions 
tools on other systems.			are freely distributable.

5.
VAX Performance and Coverage Analyzer.	Gprof.

An execution profiler.  Can handle	Sometimes comes bundled with Unix.
such things as Ada tasks.  Users will	Users are not likely to see it on
only see it on VAXes, though they may	systems that are not BSD-based and
t worth that much money -- perhapssee similar tools on other systems.	do not have a continuous-memory model.

6.
VAX Notes.				Notes or news/rn/vn/etc.

A bulletin board system.  Well-inte-	Freely distributable.  Several choices
grated into VMS environment.  Only	of software.  Interfaces with Usenet.
works on local host or across DECNet.	Very wide readership.
Not interfaceable with Usenet.

7.
VAX DOCUMENT.				Well, it looks like you'd get this
					if you let troff handle a few more
Appears to be a markup language for	fonts, or crippled TeX or ditroff
typesetting.  Supports "a variety of	into device dependency.  My choice
Digital laser printers" (haha), but	is TeX, and it is freely distributable.
seems to be able to generate post-
script (for LPS40, at least).

8.
VAX SCAN.				Oh, God... awk, perl, sed, lex, ...

Something like 'awk', it seems.		Bundled with Unix and/or freely dis-
					tributable.

9.
VAX DEC/Test Manager.			None come to mind.

A regression test manager.

10.
VAX Software Project Manager.		None come to mind.

Not a bad collection of tools.  Sticking a "CASE" label on it is an overkill.
Seems like the term "CASE" is becoming as useful as the term "MIPS" -- when
you see it on a sales sheet, just white it out: you'll make the page less
crowded, and won't lose any useful information. 

BBBBBBBBBBBBUT -- what does it cost?  I don't have the latest prices handy,
but last I checked CMS alone (that's the RCS equivalent) cost US$8,000, and
MMS (that's make) was $2,000.  I doubt if any of these tools cost less than
$2,000.  So, I'd guesstimate that if I wanted all of these, I'd pay about
$20,000 to $30,000 dollars, depending on how much cheaper it is to get them in
"kits" -- and that is PER MACHINE!  (I know that hypothetically, if every
computer on this campus was a VAX, many in clusters, and they all ran VMS, it
would be cheaper, but that is not reality.)

Now, I'm not saying that these tools are not worth the money -- they probably
are.  But they (except DOCUMENT) support only one specialty on campus:
software development.  If I was making this choice for a software development
company, this cost would be of low importance.  But this is a university.  We
have so many different interests here, that we just cannot afford to purchase
Caddilac-level tools for each one.  Besides, tools that we get for free, or at
nominal cost, are often at least as good, if not better. 

So, to people who are considering to go VMS-only on their campus (sorry, this
discussion has been so long, that I can't trace its source anymore :-), I say:

	Go for it, if you have very rich and generous alumni. 

Jacob Gore				Gore at EECS.NWU.Edu
Northwestern Univ., EECS Dept.		{oddjob,gargoyle,ihnp4}!nucsrl!gore