How did DEC handle the transition from sixteen bitness to thirty-two
bitness?

I recall from Mike Yawn's Introduction in "The Legacy Continues", describing
how HP was picking up new customers for the sixteen bit 3000 from shops who
felt betrayed by their vendors. At least for some, the transition from
sixteen to thirty-two bits was a plain migration, with much or most
everything requiring migration-sized effort. I assume that the sixteen bit
platforms were being EOLed by their vendors, but don't remember that detail.
Having started in a shop that had survived an ugly migration from an EOLed
platform, this scenario "resonated" with me.

So, I'm wondering where DEC, VAX, & VMS all fits into this picture. I'm sure
that others on the list can fill in the details.

Now, I assume that we will be seeing more and more of OpenVMS at HP World
(what will come of MPE for Interex?). Rather than getting wrapped up in
"advocacy", I hope that MPEers and OVMSers will see those things that they
hold in common. In a world that knows the mythologies of "Open Systems" that
wind up being just proprietary enough to kill you (for instance, Gnome and
KDE branched from the same origins, and have no hope of merging), starting
off knowing that you are proprietary, and approaching "Openness" could be a
good thing.

But, Duane, I must agree with others, there seems to be very little ROI
learning how to do something on yet another platform, that I already know
how to do on others. And this is in spite of most of us being in mixed
shops, with other platforms, even if you only count one's desktop system,
which, in most cases, is not a 700/92 terminal.

Admittedly, it affects my own attitude that I am learning, not because I
want to, or because there is an advantage to doing so, but because I am more
or less forced to, and am being given very little choice in what I am
learning. It is the difference between taking a stroll and being taken on a
forced march, between enjoying a good dinner and being force-fed. Perhaps
the view from your vantage point at QSS is different, I can't know, although
as I read you, your attitude toward how things are is better than my own.
But for someone who is not the captain of his own destiny, some days are
just a real drag. And I think that not a few of us are feeling about as
useful as a pork chop at a kosher wedding.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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