Stan replied to:

> > 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.
>
> I'd have to disagree.  I think that the lab made a major effort,
> and implemented a significant new feature in a pretty short
> timeframe.

I have to strongly disagree with the original post:  Not only did
the Lab implement a major new feature in a relatively short
timeframe, they did it while preserving one of the hallmarks of
the HP e3000;  i.e.:  Backward compatibility;  i.e.:  They did
NOT have to fork the OS....


> It's not done, of course.  We still need to see all file types
> (including byte stream) implement > 4 GB.

Also note:  HP said they will be using MPE "Large Files"
to implement dataset capacities > 80 GB in TurboIMAGE;
instead of increasing the number of JUMBO chunk files...


> MPE has a lot: byte stream, fixed record, variable record,
> message files, KSAM/iX, RIO, and Circular files. .....
>
> CSY knew they didn't have the resources to make all of those
> types of files Large Files in the same release, so they chose
> the most frequently used ones for the first release ... and I
> think that's appropriate.

So do I....


> > 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. ......
>
> On a 927, HPFADDTOPOINTER takes about 24 microseconds.
>
> ......let's say you spent 0.5 seconds of CPU processing
> each record (not counting the HPFADDTOPOINTER call)...
> that's about 18 months of CPU time, out of which 2400
> seconds is pretty small.

Using Stan's example, that's about 0.005 percent of wall time
doing HPFADDTOPOINTER...  I'd call that *very* small....


> > 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.
>
> I think that's a cautionary tale that we should all keep in mind.
>
> No matter how dedicated Winston and CSY is, they are at the
> mercy of higher-level managers who have frequently killed
> golden geese for a quick bite of pate.

...  which I expect is one reason so many of us are concerned
with the current "we have only three strategic OS" message
coming out of HP Corporate.  CSY will get the technical job
done in good order;  if we can just get some overt "political"
support at the CEO level...

Ken Sletten