From: vlf@star.enet.dec.com   
      
   I have been a bit gabby of late, some pontifications, delivered   
   ex-cathedra, from my lay-z-boy recliner, ensconced in dressing gown   
   and slippers, laptop perched on a dinner tray.   
      
   Rummaging through the to-do list shoe box of remaining paper scraps,   
   scribbled on, for what I wanted to say about matters VMS, are the   
   following:   
      
   1. A Digital Press Redux   
      
   The digital press imprint was hoovered up by the Butterworth-Heineman   
   publishers back in the day, and in turn Butterworth-Heineman, became   
   an imprint of the Elselvier publishers, and the digital press imprint   
   is not even listed, currently, an imprint buried in a imprint:   
      
   https://shop.elsevier.com/book-imprints   
      
   The only digital press publication I could find, as a Mr Magoo   
   net-sleuth, was:   
      
   https://shop.elsevier.com/books/openvms-alpha-internals-and-data   
   structures/goldenberg/978-1-55558-159-6   
      
   Slim pickings, indeed, but, at least, it's available as a picture   
   perfect PDF, and not as that horrid, hideous, homuculi, of a good book   
   - the e-book format.   
      
   Suffice to say that the digital press back catalogue is not getting   
   worked in any way shape or form.   
      
   It would be lovely (many things VMS would be lovely!) if VSI sought to   
   purchase the digital press imprint and the rights to back catalogue,   
   from Elselvier, and to resurrect, at least, all the publications   
   pertaining to VMS, as a mark of respect to the DEC antecedent of VSI,   
   but also to provide very practical guides for newcomers, and old   
   hands, on matters VMS.   
      
   Whilst there would probably never be any paper publications, the DP   
   VMS books can live on, in picture perfect perpetuity, as PDF files,   
   indeed to maximise their facility as reference books, the   
   meta-structure of all the PDFs could be upgraded to conform to the   
   cross-reference excellence of the "ThermoBook" - Thermodynamics and   
   Chemistry, by A/Prof. Howard DeVoe:   
      
   https://www2.chem.umd.edu/thermobook/downloads.htm   
      
   (The first PDF link demonstrates the thorough table of contents,   
   index, and cross-links excellence and diligence, required for a   
   practical PDF reference work)   
      
   All of the VSI/DP catalogue of VMS PDF's could be all made available   
   for a pepper-corn price of 20-30 Euros, so that there is only modest   
   impediment to collecting the whole set of VMS reference books, and the   
   authors could get some royalties, however modest, again.   
      
   Presumably, squirrelled away somewhere, Elselvier have the source word   
   processing documents to the books, and also the print-ready master   
   PDFs of the books.   
      
   So even if upgrading the PDF texts of the books to ThermoBook class   
   never comes to pass, the print-ready master PDFs could be made   
   available.   
      
   Which leads us to the great DEC VMS IDSM - which, without a doubt, is   
   the greatest internals and data structures manual of an operating   
   system that has ever been written - often emulated (in the Unix   
   world), but never bettered - it was an exemplary class act,   
   documenting an exemplary class operating system, published by a   
   exemplary class corporation.   
      
   The physical book itself was also a class act of the best of the   
   bookbinding craft, and it deserves to live on in picture perfect   
   perpetuity as a PDF - so that it can never fade from memory, or   
   quality attention anew.   
      
   The last time I had any correspondence with Ruth, was by e-mail, about   
   fifteen years ago (time does fly!), where the IDSM came up for   
   discussion. I don't know whether she's retired from Microsoft, if   
   she's still there, then, by definition, she's not doing anything   
   useful! - perhaps she could be persuaded to rebirth the IDSM as a   
   full-fledged PDF reference work, for posterity?   
      
   Here's hoping.   
      
   2. Living Museums of DEC software   
      
   DEC had as glorious past as we all know, both in hardware and   
   software.   
      
   The hardware is destined, eventually, to all fail, when the supply of   
   spare parts, eventually, dries up - however, the totality of glory of   
   the achieved software can live on, eternally.   
      
   As an acknowledgement, and tribute to, of where VSI/VMS came from, and   
   where it could still head, it would be lovely indeed if VSI   
   established "Living Museums" for VAX/VMS and AXP/VMS, using hardware   
   virtualisers, with all DEC layered products, and documentation,   
   installed - interested people can take a museum tour of it all,   
   appreciating the big picture, from non-privileged accounts, indeed,   
   they could be able to explore non-privileged application development.   
      
   Such historical momuments, for the permanent record, are long overdue.   
      
   Additionally, the source code for all the layered products, and   
   indeed, VAX/VMS and AXP/VMS, could be made available as well, so that   
   it is a complete curation - let the sunshine, of quality attention,   
   in!   
      
   BTB, a DeepSeek AI/LLM model trained on all of the VMS documentation   
   and Source Code, would be a fascinating thing to explore!   
      
   That's about it, these two broad-brush theses, and proposals.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)