Cortland Wilson wrote:
>What do we know about Carly's commitment to the HP e3000?   What do we
>have, in writing, that we can show to others?

The lack of visible marketing commitment is just one area where HP is
trying to kill the MPE.

In 6.5 the addition of "Large Files"(>4GB) to the FOS shows clearly how
committed HP is to the MPE - that is  to say: "They are not".  It(Large
Files implementation) is a joke.  It is so incomplete in its implementation
as to be laughable.  It produces inconsistent results, depending on the
machine you use, what the current load is, etc, etc.  The languages were
not changed to allow you to do 64 bit pointer manipulation.  The only
facility added to do so, is a single intrinsic call, to add a constant
to a pointer.  There are more operations needed with pointer manipulation
than just adding a constant.  How absolutely irresponsible.  Now the only
way to add one to your 64 bit pointer is to call an intrinsic.  Intrinsic
calls are not cheap.  They incur a great deal of overhead.  The calls to
get a 64 bit file pointer to a LARGE file that is already opened, cannot
be used, even though they are added with 6.5 and documented, even though
they appear to work, almost all the time, and on some machines, 100% of the
time.  The documentation for the new intrinsics they provided are truly at
the most fundamental level, incorrect(Parameters are not the types
described),
and incomplete.  These deficits have been brought to their attention, and
they
are summarily discarded, even though to any sane person it is clear that
what
was produced is unacceptable under all conditions.  Their design and
implementation shows the level of commitment from HP to the MPE.  Their
inability to admit that what they produced is in serious need of revisiting
and their refusal to do so is further evidence.  That management allowed a
design and implementation that consistently, knowingly, produces
inconsistent
results, would in some cultures result in such "loss of face" as to have the

problem be "self remediating".

The problem is not just Carly, it is all of HP.  It is not just marketing,
it is a corporate strategy to milk this cash cow for all it is worth while
expending as little <snip></snip> resources on it as possible.  And, for
those of you who are operating under the mistaken notion that a 5 or 10
year plan is meaningful, I have lived through this before.  The HP260 was
another machine that HP wanted to get rid of.  They had a 5 and 10 year
plan, including hardware and software, that the head of development told
the HP260 community, as well as to the company I worked for specifically,
in person.  Then two months later, HP pulled the plug, and left us all high
and dry.  HP did create what they believed was an upgrade path.  It was a
complete joke.  It was unusable.  Their solution still evokes laughter for
those that lived through it.  They did not even ask for comments from those
that knew the HP260, and the company I worked for at the time was the
world-wide acknowledged leader in the arena of development and knowledge
of the HP260.  Everyone else, including Boeblingen, Germany(HP260 Home), did

not know it nearly as well, by their own admission.  FYI:  It(the HP260) was

replaced in a little over two years of development effort by that same small

company.  If you think it takes a great deal of effort and developer staff
to
do these things, you would be incorrect.  It depends solely on the skill
level,
knowledge, and the ability of management to facilitate the process and not
encumber it.

It is happening all over again with the MPE.  This community needs to see
the handwriting on the wall.  HP is doing everything they can to kill it,
without stirring us up into action.  What they are doing is not marketing
it, not trying to sell it, so that they can produce the numbers to justify
their desired actions.  This is not a new strategy.  Carly is not stupid.
That she does not agree with us, means nothing.  We do not matter to her.
We do not matter to HP.  These are facts and uncontestable given their
behavior.  Any statement to the contrary by Carly or anyone else at HP
should be totally ignored until they back it up with actions.  By actions
I mean a real ad campaign.  By actions I mean a knowledgeable and skilled
developers and management for MPE development.  Maybe even people who can
speak English.

The human resources allocated to the MPE development are unskilled.
Compared to the reality,
they should consider this a complement.  If any of them are skilled,
their management is then preventing them from doing a good job, and I
apologize in advance for this attribution.  We all know this happens.
Most of us have seen it first hand.

What can we do, when HP does not care?

What can we say, when HP does not listen?

We can rant all we want to, and all HP does is yawn.

I am sure some corporate dweeb from HP will respond somehow at some point
to all of this, but the bottom line is this.

If they do not advertise it, they are not committed to it, no matter what
they say to the contrary.

If they do not commit skilled and adequate resources to MPE development,
both
in terms of the actual people that do the work, as well as senior management

and all layers in between, then they are not committed to it, no matter what

they say to the contrary.

"That is just my opinion, I could be wrong."  DML/DM/HBO.

Ken Graham