Catherine Phelan writes:

> I am about to migrate from HP3000 to HP9000.  Will I have to
> learn totally new commands or is it the same?

As others have written, it's a totally new world.

Robelle has links to a bunch of articles geared specifically
for MPE users moving to UNIX:

   http://www.robelle.com/tips/unix-quickstart.html

As it happens, you can get a head start on the basic commands
and concepts today, with your e3000.  Try this:

   0. While MPE has a single command interpreter (CI), UNIX has
      several from which to choose.  Instead of being called a
      CI, though, it's called a "shell."  On MPE, the UNIX-like
      interpreter is called the "POSIX shell."

      In the samples below, colon (:) is used as the MPE prompt,
      and dollar ($) is used as the POSIX shell prompt.  It is
      likely that neither is used on your machine.

   1. launch the POSIX shell.  (On HP-UX, you would just login.)

         :xeq sh.hpbin.sys -L

   2. enter the POSIX (and UNIX) equivalent of :SHOWTIME

         $date

   3. exit the POSIX shell.  (On UNIX, this would log you off;
      on MPE, it just returns to the MPE prompt.)

         $exit

The standard text editor in UNIX is vi.  (emacs is also common,
but it's not available on the e3000, or if it is, it's not
installed by default.)

The advantages of learning vi are that you'll find it on every
UNIX or Linux box, and that it's powerful enough to use in
daily development.  The disadvantages are that it is nowhere
near as powerful or easy to use as Qedit, and the learning
curve is exponential.  Other than that, it's fine. ;)

HP has thoughtfully included a tutorial on vi, using text files
that you view and edit with vi.  To get started:

   1. launch the POSIX shell

         :xeq sh.hpbin.sys -L

   2. copy the files to your directory

         $cp /hpshell-examples/*.v .

      cp is the UNIX 'copy' command

      /hpshell-examples/*.v refers to all files in the
         /hpshell-examples directory ending in '.v'
         (the UNIX and POSIX shells use '*' instead of '@')

      . refers to the current directory

   3. see what files were copied, with the UNIX version of :listf

         $ls *.v

   4. open the intro file in vi

         $vi browse.v

   5. if you need to exit vi before learning how ;)

         :q! (enter all three chars from inside of vi)

   6. exit the POSIX shell

         $exit

Of course, this is just the command level.  For development
languages, I use Java and Perl daily, both of which are
freely available for the e3000 as well.

If you end up using Oracle on the 9000, you'll probably want
something to help you load data into the database and extract
data out; the tools Oracle provides are abysmal.

Informix has decent tools, in the form of 'load' and 'unload'
commands.  For Oracle, I ended up writing Perl simulations of
the Informix load and unload commands.

While these work fine for my needs, I suspect Robelle's
Suprtool/UX is far better, and that it would be a worthwhile
investment for any Oracle/HP-UX shop.

Bottom line:  Kiss the simplicity of MPE and Image good-bye,
but think of the migration as an opportunity to learn things
that can be applied to many other platforms, including Linux
and even Mac OS X!

--Glenn