In article <[log in to unmask]>, Mark Wonsil <wonsil@4M-
ENT.COM> writes
>I have followed this thread with great interest.  I have thought long about
>what would make the 3000 more attractive to Unix and NT shops.  I was moved
>by an exchange between Wirt Atmar and an old college buddy about the
>strength of the HP3000 and the PC.  Wirt is correct (<--- Is that
>redundant?)  The 3000 is exceptional at serving up data, why move it to the
>PC?  OTOH, most of us would prefer to use Reflection, Minisoft, QCTerm and
>other GUI's than to go back to an HP700/92.  The goal is to meld the two
>preferences.
>
<snip interesting XML stuff...>

To preserve the HP3000, we need, by this and other means, to bury
everything that is 'HP3000-ish' about at a level where it won't bother
the people running and using it, who see only a very familiar interface.

So it's got to be completely maintainable in all respects by anyone who
can maintain a Unix box, who need never know that there is an MPE way of
doing things, as well as a Posix/Unix way.

And the DBs must be accessible to anyone who knows SQL without them ever
needing to know that there are really Image databases under there. And
this must cover both data access and db maintenance.

And the user applications interface must be Windows all the way, without
the user ever knowing or caring that it's really VPLUS under there, with
Frontman or some such interceding.

But because it's 'really' MPE/iX, Image, VPLUS under there, the
reliability and economy of the platform aren't compromised. So the user
perception is 'Hey, it looks just like any other(!) Unix or NT box, but
it stays up, and it runs like an immy'.

OK, us longtime HP3000 guys will need to become 'stealth' developers,
possessors of the arcane knowledge of the real interfaces underneath.
But that's only how the compilers are now, after all. Lots of us write
COBOL (the interface we see), but far fewer have a deep insight into
what it compiles into, nor do they need to have.

Taking this one layer outwards sounds like the strategy to me. And, who
knows, once people see what the HP3000 can do, they may be tempted to
explore the strange world of MPE/iX, and all the wonderful things it can
do. Just as we, now, have been pitched into the strange and wonderful
world of Posix......
--
Roy Brown               Phone : (01684) 291710     Fax : (01684) 291712
Affirm Ltd              Email : [log in to unmask]
The Great Barn, Mill St 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
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