[comp.os.vms] termcaps etc. in VMS

EVERHART%ARISIA.DECnet@GE-CRD.ARPA (03/03/88)

Terry Lambert's guess that "50% of the DECUS stuff originated on
non-VMS systems" could be right, but sounds pretty high to me. I'd
guess the correct number is in the 30-40% range. Many of these systems
have other letters associated with them. Letters like RSX, IAS, RT,
TOPS. A few (under 10% certainly; probably FAR under 10%) have letters
associated like UNIX in their ancestry.
	VMS will run stuff from other systems fairly well, as it is a
reasonably multi-language system with a usable set of OS primitives.
(It also has a file system which is reasonably corruption resistant,
which tends to make experienced users sleep better nights...)
	However, if you want to port code that uses termcap, why the heck
don't you just use termcap? It's supplied with Gnu Emacs, which any
VMS system can get. (I'll venture the opinion that any VMS installation
without the VAX SIG tapes (at least) out of DECUS, which include the
abovementioned code, ought to have its' manager's head examined  :-)  )
	You are free to use SMG$, Termcap, SCRFT, or whatever else you
like, or roll your own.  DEC's been moving toward using SMG$ for their
utilities, and new DEC utilities generally use it. The older stuff
does not always do so. It's kind of unfortunate if you haven't a VT100
lookalike available, but that's a universal problem where there's a
software heritage, and where oddball terminals are generally rare.
	You could get a cheap pc clone and run Kermit (v2.30 has
VT102 and Tek 4010 support) as a workaround...
Glenn Everhart