FreeVMS

From: Pat Finnegan <pat_at_purdueriots.com>
Date: Fri Jan 4 08:41:48 2002

On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Ron Hudson wrote:

> Yup, I could "help" them, probably set the effort back
> at least a year... :^)
>
> > On Thu, 2002-01-03 at 19:46, Boatman on the River of Suck wrote:
> >
> >> Why not just get a VAX (or two or three?)
>
> $$ and X*Y*Z (money and space) :^)

Also: speed. Sorry, but the new Dual ath 1.4G I hope to get with Xmas
money would be tons faster than and old VAX 8650. Not as fun to play with
the little computer, but much easier to carry without a pallet mover.

>
> >>
> >> Peace... Sridhar
>

I have not-too-much experince with VMS, so bear with me, but wouldn't it
be possible to do one of the following options:

1) Stick an 'emulation' user-mode shell on top of some free *nix

2) Take a stock free *nix kernel, and modify it to work more like VMS.

While #1 (should) be rather trivial if all the catches fit into the kernel
hooks (and a bit of coersion for the stranger details), #2 still saves
quite a bit of work by having a framework of usable device drivers, kernel
scheduler, vm, memory manangement, etc. etc. etc. Changing around the
kernel's API just enuf to work wouldn't be too much of a problem. Leaving
the essentials in place could mean compatibility with some existing *nix
software even, and things like VMWare which would help greatly with
development efforts.

Of course, the problem is deciding what ONE kernel to use (prolly BSD or
Linux 2.??), and how to trim down the kernel to a small set of drivers for
testing it.

Well, as a student, and long-time programmer (compared to other 20yr
olds), that's my $0.02.

--Pat
Received on Fri Jan 04 2002 - 08:41:48 GMT