> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Overmaat
>
> Hello Mary,
>
> You need extra information from the client who has this HP3000:
> - what operating system does it have? (Probably HP-UX, that is UNIX)

you forgot the word "NOT" -- actually, the better question (although
somewhat irrelevant for COBOL) would be "which RELEASE of MPE/iX are they
on?"

> - how do you edit Cobol sources, create test files, compile and
>   link/edit and perform testruns on that system?

Actually, HP does have a couple of beginner guides on the HP3000 series (I
believe they've already been mentioned on this thread, which saves me from
having to dredge up the names :)

> If it is UNIX, almost any UNIX tutorial will do, because as
> a programmer you only need to know a limited amount of commands.

Interesting thought pattern here -- "as a programmer" (who doesn't want to
advance very much) "learning a limited number of commands" is the way to go
I guess...

However, in comparison to a "true" unix, I suppose MPE/iX has a "limited
number of commands" to begin with, so it is/was fairly trivial to learn the
majority of them -- online help covered the rest

BUT, if you really want to go "the unix route", a recent addition to the
MPE/iX operating system is a posix shell which gives you a good percentage
of those crypic unix commands...

> The same goes for the editor vi.

Fortunately the base editor for MPE/iX isn't as ugly :)  OTOH, it is a close
relative to "edlin"  (and likewise, on the "same goes for..." front, "vi" is
available if you really want to make use of it -- unfortunately, if you do
start using "posix" features, there are cases where you actually have to use
this or one of the solutions below, most notably for things like the apache
configuration files...)

There are various editors available (both commercial and "free" or
"contributed by members of the user community") which allow for on-screen
editing mixed in with line-mode editing and/or "global search-and-destroy"
commands.  With the addition of Samba on a system, you can even use PC-based
editors if you prefer.  Of course, even without Samba there are PC-oriented
solutions: using FTP or specialized file-transfer capabilities of a PC-based
terminal emulator, you can edit locally and upload-for-compiles.
Commercially, whispersoft and another company (whom I cannot remember at the
moment, but the product name is "facade") make semi-stand-alone editors
which communicate with a specialized "daemon" on the system.  Robelle
actually has the better of both worlds in this arena, though -- they make a
native full-screen editor which has the ability to communicate with a PC for
more modern editing environments

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