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From: garry@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Garry Wiegand)
Newsgroups: net.decus,net.unix,net.usenix
Subject: Re: Favorite operating systems query
Message-ID: <486@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU>
Date: Wed, 18-Jun-86 03:48:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: batcompu.486
Posted: Wed Jun 18 03:48:16 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jun-86 08:26:59 EDT
Reply-To: garry%cadif-oak@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu
Distribution: net
Organization: Cornell Engineering && Flying Moose Graphics
Lines: 36
Xref: watmath net.decus:336 net.unix:8267 net.usenix:594

I've been subjected to an unpleasantly large number of operating systems
over the years (is WYLBUR still out there somewhere?), and I'm a VMS
partisan. What comes to mind quickly:

1) Command names and switch names are reasonable, in English, and consistent
   across all the different programs. I don't have to carry a stupid encoding
   table around in my head. 

2) The on-line Help is well-indexed, and it's HUGE. They've recently started
   digesting the language references into Help entries; I rarely need 
   to page through a manual anymore.

3) The source-line debugger is exceedingly useful for program development and
   (after several years of hard work at DEC) I can say it works well.

4) The system services are logical, consistent, and well-documented. Anything
   a utility can do, a user program can do too. (And if you want to tickle the 
   kernel, there *is* a thick manual on the system internals.)
 
5) VMS, she doesn't die, she doesn't break, she doesn't lose files, she 
   just keeps running along. It's pretty trustworthy.

I like MacIntoshes too, but that operating system is still in its infancy -
"Inside the Mac" is not recommended light reading.

PS - I don't buy the argument about "portable systems"! This industry is much
   too young to constrain itself to just one way of doing things. In the
   graphics system I designed last winter, I stole good ideas wherever I
   found them. From VMS, Unix, the Mac, even one from IBM! Not to mention
   all the "graphics packages" that had gone before. 

   In diversity there is much richness.


-- 
garry wiegand   (garry%cadif-oak@cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu)