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From: wagner@iaoobelix.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Re: bsd unix vs dec's vms - (nf)
Message-ID: <8200010@iaoobelix.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 7-May-87 02:12:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: iaoobeli.8200010
Posted: Thu May  7 02:12:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 30-May-87 03:27:46 EDT
References: <3492@apollo.UUCP>
Lines: 52
Nf-ID: #R:apollo:-349200:iaoobelix:8200010:000:2521
Nf-From: iaoobelix!wagner    May  7 07:12:00 1987

> /***** iaoobelix:comp.unix.ques / apollo!jps /  5:44 am  Apr 30, 1987*/
> It depends on what you want to do.
> 
>     examples:
>         - If you want to spawn many jobs, bsd would probably
>           win hands down.

This might (:-) come from the fact that UNIX essentially is based upon
the easy process creation scheme. Everything (almost...) runs in a
seperate process: I won't try this under the VeryMysteriousSystem. 

>         - If you want optimal performance on a system that
>           has heterogenous computing tasks (ya know, somebody
>           is calculating an fft, while someone else does a
>           db query while the secretary types a letter) you'll
>           find that vms will tend to be better.

I haven't seen actual benchmarks of this kind yet. It also seems to be
very difficult to get objective data! Maybe you're right if you are
thinking of VAXen running UNIX and the same machines running VMS. From
my experiences with a VAX/750 (UNIX) and Suns (3/50 and 3/260) the 750
is about the factor 6 to 15 *slower* than the Sun 3/260. A VMS VAX/750
needs some more time (factor 8 to 20). These results are based on the
compilation time and on some simple benchmarks with CProlog1.5. Note
that the source code was approximately the same on all machines and
operating systems.

BTW, another feature of UNIX makes it much more friendly than VMS:
pipelines. Have you ever tried to do such thing as
    cat *.icon | convert-to xerox | pretty-print | send-to-dlion
or
    enter -f jw_utils `cat jw_tools.h | sed 's/"//; s/".*/\ \\\/; $ s/\\\//'`
under VMS?? Be careful not to mix up all these temporary files...

My personal view of UNIX compared to VMS is approximately the following:
UNIX is likes a sports car, many knobs (including dangerous ones) but as
soon as you know how to operate this beast..., well! VMS is like a
tractor, a somehow simple and robust tool for heavy work.

In principle, I believe UNIX is a more adequate operating system for
research (esp. AI research) because of its higher developed facilities
as far as the (nested) shell philosophy is concerned, and because of its
modular structure, e.g. allowing for pipelines of commands. However, for
commercial and industrial applications VMS might (MIGHT) be more
advantagous due to its real-time properties and robust design.

Juergen Wagner,		     (USENET) ...seismo!unido!iaoobel!wagner
("Gandalf")			 Fraunhofer Institute IAO, Stuttgart

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