ldg@amy.skidmore.edu (02/15/91)
We are about to undertake conversion from a VMS to Unix environment. The
decision is prompted by a wide variety of technical and economic concerns
that are somewhat peripheral to this posting.
As part of the conversion, we are looking at the software products offered by
Boston Business Computing. Specifically, they offer:
VCL an emulation of VMS/DCL on Unix
EDT full screen editor
MAIL VMS mail-like user interface to Unix mail
BACKUP VMS BAckup facility for Unix.
We are considering these items for two tasks:
a. A transition tool to help VMS users migrate over to Unix without
experiencing a 100% change in the user interface.
b. We have a large number of casual users (e.g. mail readers). Keeping
the user interface constant for them may be a whole lot easier than
retraining all of them on day 1. Besides which, VMS MAIL has much
to recommend itself for casual users.
As a small college, most of our users spend their time on micros,
employing the host systems primarily for MAIL, other communication resources,
and access to standard stat packages (e.g. SPSS, SAS, ...). As a result,
we don't have folks composing complex DCL scripts that might seriously tax
the quality of the software.
Without getting into a religious war over VMS vs. Unix, I'm interested in the
experiences of other sites that have used the products to provide a VMS-like
environment on a Unix platform. How satisfied are other sites with these
programs? Have they worked out reasonably as the advertising glossies claim?
Are the programs sufficiently robust to permit their implementation on a large
scale?
Please send comments via E-mail. If there are sufficient responses, I'll
submit a summary to the newsgroup.
===================================================================
Leo D. Geoffrion
Associate Director for NYNEX: (518) 584-5000 Ext. 2628
Academic Computing BITNET: LDG@SKIDMORE
Skidmore College Internet: LDG@AMY.SKIDMORE.EDU
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
===================================================================