news - Holeman (Interlink Ministries)

While a programmer at SDSU I created VAX-106, SDSU_AskLib, a Fortran user interface library on VMS. As a first step in using VMS again, I wanted to download, build and run it again. There were a few hurdles at getting FTP to work on VMS running as a guest OS on a virtual machine. Then I was able to easily follow the documentation from 1984 to build and run the tests. This is after decades of VMS changes across several hardware architures and it worked right off. There are a number of features that are not available on any other operating system. These make if a better system to create software upon.

Build and run test program menu which uses SDSU_AskLib on OpenVMS:

cwhii@v922> fortran menu
cwhii@v922> link menu,SDSU_AskLib/library
cwhii@v922> run menu

Menu - A menu program

Today's Menu:

   D   Duck soup
   C   Chicken burrito
   F   Fish chowder
   P   Pineapple pizza

Select main course: p

How many servings would you like? 2

Would you like a side order of french fries? maybe

Y        Yes
N        No
Default: Yes 
^Z to exit program. 

Would you like a side order of french fries? 
Defaulting to: Yes 

With catsup? y

Would you like Pepsi, Milk, Coffee or Water? drpepper

Enter one of the following:
  P                                                                           
  M                                                                           
  C                                                                           
  W                                                                           
                                                                              
Default: P                 
^Z to exit program. 

Would you like Pepsi, Milk, Coffee or Water? w

What size drink, in ounces, please: 16

Your name so I can call you when it is ready: cwhii

Hey! cwhii that will be $  3.33
        

I developed software on and for OpenVMS for decades. There are a number of features that are not available on any other operating system. These make if a better system to create software upon.

DEC originally created VMS to run on DEC 32-bit VAX-11. As the VAX architecture got old and limited DEC ported VMS to DEC 64-bit Alpha. Then it was ported to Intel 64-bit Itanium. As HP abandonded developemnt of VMs, the rights where sold to VMS Software Inc. VSI has ported VMS to Intel 64-bit x86_64.

VSI has released a free license for personal use or open source software development for VMS. At this time VMS runs on x86_64 on virtual machines. For the first time I install a virtual machine, Oracle OpenBox. Then installed and configured for VMS.

System status on OpenVMS:

cwhii@v922> show system
OpenVMS V9.2-2  on node V922   27-AUG-2024 12:13:08.61   Uptime  1 21:29:46
  Pid    Process Name    State  Pri      I/O       CPU       Page flts  Pages
00000401 SWAPPER         HIB     16        0   0 00:00:00.00         0     17   
00000404 LANACP          HIB     14       63   0 00:00:00.02       217    268   
00000406 FASTPATH_SERVER HIB     10        8   0 00:00:00.01       161    202   
00000407 IPCACP          HIB     10        8   0 00:00:00.01       138    180   
00000408 ERRFMT          HIB      8     2497   0 00:00:00.00       187    232   
0000040A OPCOM           HIB      8      175   0 00:00:00.00       178    184   
0000040B AUDIT_SERVER    HIB     10       59   0 00:00:00.02       227    287   
0000040C JOB_CONTROL     HIB     10       26   0 00:00:00.00       177    243   
0000040E SECURITY_SERVER HIB     10       20   0 00:00:00.02       288    342 M 
00000411 SMHANDLER       HIB      8       51   0 00:00:00.01       270    294   
00000412 CWHII           CUR   0  7      149   0 00:00:00.06       473    321