muts@compi.hobby.nl (Peter Mutsaers) writes:

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>>>On Sun, 18 Jul 1993 20:19:06 GMT, farrow@spot.Colorado.EDU (J. Scott
>>>Farrow) said:

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>  JSF> somewhat interesting.  While VMS does have some fine features
>  JSF> like queues, priviliges, and quotas (BACKUP is _not_ one),
>  JSF> there is something intrinsically braindead about an OS that
>  JSF> will let me set my default directory (cd for UNIX types) to a
>  JSF> directory that doesn't exist.

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>I don't want to defend VMS or offend unix, but this remark makes no
>sense. In Unix you can also do this:

It most certainly does.  I have been driven to the edge of complete 
frustration by the DCL file and directory specifications.  In DCL, if you 
don't know exactly where you want to sd to, you are screwed.

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>~> HOME=/haha
>/home/muts> cd
>/haha: No such file or directory
>/home/muts> 
[..]

Yes.  But I can't do this (in any shell I've ever used):
(mucking about with environment variables does not count)

cd non.existent.directory

without getting an error message.  Sure I can use some cd comfile or something
for VMS, but how is this any better than the "use a different shell" response
that us UNIX types are always being flamed for?

At any rate, the whole point of this thread was a discussion of why there isn't
a freeware version of VMS.

<dons asbestos suit>

I'll grant that there are some features of VMS that UNIX could use, but let's
face it.  VMS isn't going anywhere, and will probably be dead within 5-10 years.
Nobody wants a freeware version of VMS, so no one will ever write one.

Hell, lets write a freeware version of CP/M or Apple DOS and see who uses it.


Scott

-- 
=========================================================================
J. Scott Farrow - OS Programmer/Analyst          farrow@spot.colorado.edu
Martin Marietta Technical Services/DOE-Western Area Power Administration
Golden, Colorado, USA                        "Linux Users Do It For Free"