Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!YMIR.BITNET!NED
From: NED@YMIR.BITNET (Ned Freed)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: RE: BITNET mail follows
Message-ID: <8808081314.AA07781@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
Date: 5 Aug 88 03:43:00 GMT
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Thomas Wallis asks for a good introduction to VAX/VMS. I suggest using one
of the brand new manuals in the VMS 5.0 documentation set -- the VMS General
User's Manual (AA-LA98A-TE). I think this is a super book for people who
are just starting out with VMS and need something that will get them up
to speed in order to do real work.

This book is the smaller size of manual and it is softbound. Its kinda chunky
since its about 1.5 inches thick, but not too bad. It starts with logging in,
takes you a little ways into DCL, covers MAIL and PHONE, then more information
on files and processes, then logical names, then DCL and command procedures,
and finally a tutorial on EVE and RUNOFF. The rest of the book is a sort of
miniature reference manual. It covers the various DCL commands, EVE commands,
RUNOFF commands, and a few other miscellaneous things like SORT, EDT and
TFF.

There's nary a word about programming in anything but DCL in there, which (in
my opinion) is good because no single language would ever be appropriate to
every "general user".

This book is not casual in any sense. It is only for people who want to
actually accomplish something on VMS, not for dabblers. In this regard it
achieves something I've rarely seen an introductory manual do -- it is still
useful after you cease to be a novice user.

                                Ned Freed, PMDF Project

P.S. It also passes a personal test of mine... there's an ASCII code chart in
it. I'm ashamed to say that I've gotten out of the habit of putting those in
the documentation I write...