Favorite operating systems query
Garry Wiegand
garry at batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU
Wed Jun 18 17:48:16 AEST 1986
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 at cu-arpa.cs.cornell.edu)
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