In message <[log in to unmask]>, Paul
Meyerhofer <[log in to unmask]> writes
>--- Roy Brown <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> In message
>> <[log in to unmask]>,
>> "Schwartzman, Zelik" <[log in to unmask]> writes

>> >I would think that if the vendor is not around anymore then in
>>> reality you
>> >should not be using their software.

>> I can see that Zelik and I occupy different realities..... I wonder
>> who else is in which one?

>Some companies, including mine, try to take the less risky approach.

>We try to select vendors that we consider safe.  If that vendor goes
>out of business or their product becomes unsatisfactory, then we start
>finding a new one or at least have a plan if things fail.  Compare this
>to your desktop or laptop.  After so many years I would assume you
>start considering replacing it.  You know you need to do it but
>oftentimes you procrastinate.  Eventually, you replace it because you
>know that some day that hard drive or screen or whatever will fail or
>it just isn't fast enough or capable enough.

Or, like me, you buy a top-of-the range Dell with a real whizzy-dizzy
graphics card on Win3.0, and find to your horror when you want to go to
Win95 that there are no new dedicated drivers for that card, nor are
there going to be. So you 'drop' to standard SVGA, muttering to
yourself, until the thing runs out of puff anyway.

And my  middle-of-the-range Dell with a real whizzy-dizzy soundcard on
Win98 (ten times faster, half the price, of its predecessor) won't be
transitioning to Win XP for similar reasons.... :-)

So what's 'safe'?

> If you can't find a replacement for software on your HP3000, maybe you
>need to re-evaluate your needs.

Do you mean that I should change the requirements of my business to fit
what's still available on the HP3000? Sounds backwards to me....

Or perhaps you mean I should re-evaluate the hardware platform I'm
using, so that I get one which does have vendors who can supply and
support the software my business needs, That would make more sense....

Trouble is, my major 'orphan' at the moment is an auto-documentor for my
HP3000 code. Changing platform to get a new documentor, which will mean
changing all the stuff I'm trying to document, doesn't make a whole lot
of sense. Seems like the tail wagging the bathwater, to me....:-)
--
Roy Brown        'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be
Kelmscott Ltd     useful, or believe to be beautiful'  William Morris