Jeff writes:

> I see a couple of potential issues here:
>
>  1. If CSY removes 3rd party FOS s/w (Mentant Streams, MB Foster ODBC,
>  MKS shell and Utilities) as a way to handle the 3rd party license issues,
>  then the version of MPE an emulator customer is using is different from
>  what a PA-RISC 3000 customer is using.
>
>  2. customer currently on 7.x, but emulated MPE is based on 6.5, thus  the
>  customer doesn't get to use the HPMAXPIN variable, for instance.
>
>  3. customer currently on 6.5 and emulated MPE is based on 7.5 PP x, so
>  the customer does not have an exact replication of their current (6.5)
>  MPE environment. Of course, if they are willing to run a PA-RISC emulator
>  this point may be moot.

Regardless of what happens, the MPE user community is going to drop to a
small fraction of its peak user base. Once the emulator(s) are up and
running, the future population of MPE users is either going to increase or
decrease in number. But in the short term future, it's going to drop to very
small numbers. If that homesteading number is only going to continue to
decrease, what we do now really won't make much difference. But if the
migrating-to-emulator population increases -- perhaps dramatically --
sometime in the future, then it's worth very carefully considering the
options now.

This coming "populational bottleneck" can be a valuable asset that should not
be squandered. No matter what's done with the emulator now, simply not that
many people are going to be affected and thus there is very little reason to
maintain the same extreme level of conservatism that has characterized the
engineering of MPE to date. Protecting the "corner cases" will simply not be
that important. Aiming for the majority user will be sufficient.

While maintaining stability and reliability in MPE is everything, this next
little bit of time in the history of MPE will be the best chance that we'll
have to correct any items that were wished to have been done differently and
setting the rules for a new generation of users who have not yet heard of
MPE, based on foreseeable hardwares and technologies.

I would not let concerns for complete compatability with the past be an
overwhelming concern. The users who migrate to the emulated version are going
to have an infinitely easier time than if they had to migrate to a completely
different operating system. Fixing a few jobs or having to purchase a new
backup device is a small cost when compared to the alternatives.

Wirt Atmar