DCL and EDT for Unix?

[Dave Sill]

In article <1991Jun19.170723.5663 at casbah.acns.nwu.edu>, jweiss at casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jerry Weiss) writes:
>
>There is nothing wrong with this approach.  It certainly has its 
>advantages and disadvantages and these should be weighed closely and 
>in consideration with the user population's level of expertise.

Sage advice.  Of course, I was trying to answer the general question
of whether to learn a new environment or make it look like the old
one.  I still think the latter is foolish in most cases.

>If the users aren't programmers and dont normally deal with the fine
>details of either DCL or UNIX, then it is probably an acceptable
>alternative.

In that case, the users are probably spending most of their time in
applications.  The only choice, then, is to port the applications or
buy a version of the same commercial application for the new OS.
I.e., if they're not heavy OS users, then go ahead and teach them the
2 dozen new commands they'll need.  You'll only be wasting time and
money in the long run by making the new OS look like the old OS.

>If on the other hand they are going to be writing DCL procedures or 
>programming, then they should "bite the bullet" and learn
>a UNIX shell.  

My point exactly.

>You can make life easier for most of them however with a few alias
>commands for things like delete, copy and rename etc.

I disagree.  The differences between VMS's "delete" and UNIX's "rm"
are too great to whitewash with an alias.  You'll only confuse your
users by providing partial compatability.

>Don't get hung up about rights and wrongs.  Evaluate the situation and
>tradeoffs and make an informed decision.

Er, decisions are all about rights and wrongs, aren't they?  I believe
that in nearly all cases an informed decision on this matter will be
to make a clean break with the old environment.

-- 
Dave Sill (de5 at ornl.gov)	  Tug on anything in nature and you will find
Martin Marietta Energy Systems    it connected to everything else.
Workstation Support                                             --John Muir