🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3009@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> MEGLAN@rcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (DWIGHT MEGLAN) writes:

>  We have just received a VAX8000 workstation as a donation from DEC (can
>you say tax write off?).

Contratulations, I guess.

>Does
>anyone have an 8000 or know someone who does ?

We've got 4 of them :-(.

>Also, how compatible (or
>more appropriately incompatible) is the HPWS windowing system in the 8000
>with DECwindows ?  The preliminary documentation I've seen (the computer
>showed up with no documentation !) says that HPWS is based on X windows.

The biggest problem with them that I see is that DEC has halted further
development effort on them already.  The last version of VMS that HPWS
works with is V5.0-2.  And they didn't even bother to tell me.  I upgraded
our cluster from V5.0-2 to V5.1 and when I booted the first one, HPWS
wouldn't come up.  I had to call CSC to find out that you can't do that.
So now I have to maintain a separate LAVc at V5.0-2 just for the VS8000s.
And that requires a separate boot node because a VS8000 can't be a boot node
for a cluster :-(.

As to the HPWS .vs. DECwindows question, the first thing to note is that
since DECwindows doesn't run on versions of VMS prior to V5.1, you've already
got one source of aggravation - there is no version of VMS at which you can
run both window systems!  I haven't done any programming on either one yet,
so I can't tell you how different they are there.  I'm passing your note on
to someone here who does have programming experience with both, including
porting software from HPWS to DECwindows.  He should to be able to give you
some idea of how painful that is or isn't.

-Mitch Collinsworth
 mitch@squid.tn.cornell.edu