From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Per Abrahamsen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: VAX/VMS (was: Re: Debian/GFDL) Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 11:38:13 +0100 Organization: The Church of Emacs Message-ID: References: <878xijmdsi.fsf@ma-patru.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de> <8764dn3q6p.fsf@localhorst.mine.nu> <20061113104909.GH1352@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1164390253 25251 80.91.229.2 (24 Nov 2006 17:44:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 17:44:13 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Nov 24 18:44:13 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Gnf5n-0007YN-QM for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Nov 2006 18:44:04 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Gnf5n-0004je-4A for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 24 Nov 2006 12:44:03 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!uninett.no!news.net.uni-c.dk!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 30 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: sheridan.dina.kvl.dk Original-X-Trace: news.net.uni-c.dk 1164278294 21066 130.225.40.227 (23 Nov 2006 10:38:14 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.net.uni-c.dk Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 10:38:14 +0000 (UTC) X-Face: +kRV2]2q}lixHkE{U)mY#+6]{AH=yN~S9@IFiOa@X6?GM|8MBp/ Mail-Copies-To: nobody User-Agent: Gnus/5.110003 (No Gnus v0.3) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:dA9I+tOV6w/DdwKDZKLYMk+4N6M= Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:143294 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:38911 Archived-At: Dieter Wilhelm writes: > You made curious, how could--I assume--an old, probably not further > developed OS be better than our modern OSs? I guess you've purity or > cleanliness concerning the design in mind, haven't you? Would it be > advantages even nowadays to run VAX/VMS from a user point of view? > > Sorry for my total ignorance of VAX/VMS. VAX/VMS had a strongly typed file system, which made it impossible to do any kind of generic file operations, and forced you to learn a separate set of commands for each type of file. It also had a really obscure syntax for file names, using []:. among other special characters. And a zillion different kind of hardwired interacting privileges that meant that ordinary users rarely were able to do what they want, but hackers could do anything as there were always some obscure path from "may use the printer privilege" to "can overwrite system files privilege". The editors were EDT and later TPU. They were much better than vi, I have to give them that. You can suffer them in Emacs with M-x edt-emulation-on or M-x tpu-edt . (TPU was really a system for writing editors in). Some people liked VAX/VMS, typically the same who preferred Wirth Pascal over K&R C. For the rest of us, Ultrix was a much more productive environment, once you had installed Emacs in it. (There were also an Emacs port to VAX/VMS, but as EDT was never as bad as vi, the need for it was less desperate).