Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!tank!shamash!raspail!bga
From: bga@raspail.UUCP (Bruce Albrecht)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Cobol Data Corporation Cyber 180 (was Re: 64 bits)
Keywords: CDC,Cyber180
Message-ID: <1121@raspail.UUCP>
Date: 31 Dec 88 05:29:46 GMT
References: <28200249@mcdurb> <451@babbage.acc.virginia.edu> <1951@scolex> <2304@garth.UUCP>
Organization: Control Data Corporation, Arden Hills, MN
Lines: 46

In article <2304@garth.UUCP>, phipps@garth.UUCP (Clay Phipps) writes:
> The C180, especially the smaller model 930 and kin, 
> should be well-suited to a native UN*X, except for any assumptions 
> that pointers are the same size as some size of integer.

With the standard disclaimer about not being an official representative of CDC,
etc., I believe that we have announced plans to release Unix in 1990.  NOS/VE
has a Unix emulator, but it's rather slow because starting new processes is
not as efficient as in a native Unix.
> 
> Although this is not "comp.os", a few other comments on the OS:
> The C180 native operating system: NOS/VE, is powerful, but it has no pipes 
> or redirection features.  Perhaps its best feature is its humane command 
> language, esp. its regular interface for command parameters, so that 
> a user can query a command (with the "discp": "display_command_parameters" 
> command) to discover its parameters and their allowable values.  
> Each parameter usually bears both a long "self-explanatory" name and 
> a very terse abbreviated name.  As a result, the absence of the moral 
> equivalent of a "man" page doesn't leave a user helpless.
> The worst feature might be its file system, apparently designed as a reach
> from the C170's flat file system.  Some of the things that ought to be 
> simple, such as the notion of directories, came out complicated.

I like NOS/VE a lot, so I'm going to pick some nits, here.  Although it has
no pipes, most programs have input and output file parameters, and it is
possible to create file connections from some files to other files.  It
has the most sophisticated command language I've seen, with all the control
structures of a higher level language (except case, which can be done with
if/elseif), variables of basic types or records, and full expression 
processing of strings, integers and reals.  NOS/VE comes with an on-line
manual system, which includes an indexed search mechanism unavailable in
man.  Also, NOS/VE utilities all use the same command language facilities,
so all of SCL is available, rather than some new convention changing from
utility to utility in Unix.  Each utility can also specify their own manual
if help is desired.  I will admit that the file system has some defiencies.
There are no links, no shorthand to specify parent directories, and wildcards
will definitely not be available before 1990, if at all (it's on the list, but
some things can get deferred indefinitely).  The quasi-directory $local is
in many ways the NOS/VE equivalent of /tmp and /dev, although it doesn't allow 
subdirectories.  With the new SCL file variables, file paths can be
abbreviated, which is nice.  There are a couple of things the NOS/VE file
system has that Unix doesn't, are individual file permissions by user and 
group, and the ability to force all I/O for a file through a procedure.
I could probably write a book on why NOS/VE is better than Unix, but I
doubt many of you would want to read it, or much more than what I've written
so far (if that much).