surfing yesterday, I came across simh and openvms hobbyist.
What there is a VAX emulator. Wow signed up, got my media on order. Only problem is I haven't touched a VAX for about 10 years.
In another life I use to cut code in Macro32, fortran and the dreaded basic+, C always seemed to run very slow. Started off on 750s, 785s and when we had our office block finally knocked down, there was an 8810 still in the computer room. Having by that time deserted DEC for Sun.
These days it is java and unfortunately C#, I chucked out all my VAX/VMS documentation/notes etc some years ago, so this is going to be an exercise it resurrecting long dead brain cells.
So first question, is there an on line documentation set available anywhere.
I am hardly a newbie with VMS, probably forgot more than many people knew. I used to write VAX unibus device drivers. and also was my companies VMS guru. Boy the amount of QIO calls I must have done for custom screen interfaces.
Interestingly the real oddball was using quad word time/date stamps within rms indexes as being least significant bits first ,It was a real screw up. so ended up with a little routine to reverse the quad word order of bits before you wrote a record and run it again after reading before you then do the conversion to real date strings etc.
AS for java &c#. That is what I am doing these days. Never would have thought of running that sort of language on a VAX.
Posts: 33 Location: North Brunswick, NJ Joined: 12.03.08
Posted on May 01 2008 13:36
There should have been no need to reverse the bytes. You could have set up a segmented key. I'm not sure of the performance of those, though. Also, later versions of VMS, at least on Alpha, supported quadword keys.
pfau wrote:
There should have been no need to reverse the bytes. You could have set up a segmented key. I'm not sure of the performance of those, though. Also, later versions of VMS, at least on Alpha, supported quadword keys.
Not bytes, bits, yes the key would have been segmented if it had been simple bytes.
By the time Alpha was a reality, we had already jumped on the sun/unix bandwagon. That was a culture shock, coming from a DEC background all the tools I needed and took for granted were missing. Suddenly the interface was raw, performance management/monitoring crude. complex batch processing etc not as good as you knew it could be.
That is why I am keen to get my SIMH system up and running. Just to remember what I used to take for granted. I keep looking out for the mailman hoping he has my distribution kit. Waiting to join my HPUG to get my license paks. I get the feeling the wife will again become a computing widow. Still at least that means she will nag me to take time out and take the bike out the garage for a blast.
Note that the CHARON-VAX and Alpha emulators are available for free to hobbyists.
When you get it running you have a choice of TCPIP products - HP, TCPWARE or MULTINET - all available for free.
malmberg June 26 2018 https://www.openvmshobbyi st.com/forum/viewthread.p hp?forum_id=10&thread_id= 2363
bhamakripa June 24 2018 I am trying OpenVMS via SIMH. Need to get OS binaries for v7.3. Registered here but don't have any membership number yet which is needed to get license. Pls suggest what to do. I hardly know anyth
basilh June 05 2018 Any other forum members in Perth, Australia?
malmberg March 24 2018 Probably. More people hang out on the comp.os.vms newsgroup.
vaxpert March 23 2018 I have a PE42A and other Alpha system stuff for sale. I'm in So California. Any interest out there?
goodbyespy February 27 2018 To Prohorenko. Please, visit group OpenVMS in the ok.ru
peteherrera February 24 2018 How much does it cost to buy a complete OpenVMS hardcopy documentation set of the latest version
prohorenko February 17 2018 Please help to obtain the license on OpenVMS
malmberg December 12 2017 HPE only makes the most current version of OpenVMS Alpha / IA64 /VAX available to hobbyists. When I had access to the Alliance 1 program it was the same. No public downloads are allowed by HPE.
nmbonao December 08 2017 Is anybody knows OpenVMS 8.2 version downloadable version? or CD copy? Thank you very much
aarommes December 02 2017 Bitcoin and Blockchain enthusiasts ( plus distributed computing ) please connec / reply: http://www.openvmshobbyis t.com/forum/viewthread.ph p?forum_id=130&thread_id= 2991
malmberg September 10 2017 https://sourceforge.net/p /vms-ports/wiki/VMSInstal lation/ For the most part just use VMS 6.1 media instead of 7.3. But why run the older release?
DoeveR August 07 2017 Where can I find the write up on running VMS 6.1 using the simh emulator?
Bart March 20 2017 Happy to have found my password again!
