How do Unix and VMS compare?

[dyer at dec-vaxuum.UUCP]

How do Unix and VMS compare?___________________________________________________

	David Chase (rbbb at RICE.ARPA) sent in a rather lengthy comparison of
VMS and Unix.  I'd like to add a few things, speaking as a heavy VMS user in
my capacity as a programmer/analyst at DEC.

> No make.  No awk....Perhaps there [are] DEC program products out there that
> make life bearable;...

	There certainly are.  There's MMS (Module Management System), which is
essentially make with some VMS/DCL features added.  It's a DEC product.  I'm
not at all familiar with awk but I believe someone's gotten it to run on VMS.

> I expect that Unix + make + awk + emacs (you can afford it) will allow pro-
> grammers to hack out more code than they would under VMS,...

	MMS (make) has certainly made life easier for me on VMS.  If the Emacs
you're referring to is the James Gosling Emacs, Unipress Software - the place
you get the Unix version - also sells a VMS version.

> Many of the neato-utilities for Unix could be rewritten for VMS...

	Definitely true; net.sources is my favorite newsgroup, and I've had
great success getting things to run on VMS using VAX C.  Also, a good number
of Unix utilities have been made to run on VMS - as well as other DEC operating
systems - by Martin Minow & company.
		<_Jym_>
        ._________________________________________________________.
     .__! Jym Dyer <> Software Craftsworker for DEC <> Nashua, NH !__.
  .__! Arpanet:  dyer%vaxuum.DEC at DECWRL.ARPA <> E-Net:  VAXUUM::DYER !__.
__! Usenet:  ...{allegra|decvax|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vaxuum!dyer !__

NOTE:  Statements provided here are based on my own beliefs, and not necessar-
ily those of |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| Equipment Corporation.