Copyright 1993-2016 by Kevin G. Barkes All rights reserved. This article may be duplicated or redistributed provided no alterations of any kind are made to this file. This edition of DCL Dialogue is sponsored by Networking Dynamics, developers and marketers of productivity software for OpenVMS systems. Contact our website www.networkingdynamics.com to download free demos of our software and see how you will save time, money and raise productivity! Be sure to mention DCL Dialogue! DCL DIALOGUE Originally published November, 1993 The VAXstation Quest By Kevin G. Barkes A very small DEC customer (me) decides to upgrade from a VAXstation 3100 Model 30 to a VAXstation 4000 Model 60. Total cost of the whole configuration: about $10K. Real small potatoes. I could use my considerable influence (hah!) as an internationally-read DEC columnist to speed up the acquisition process, but I decide to proceed as a typical small business owner. Wednesday, July 28: I call DECdirect's technical support line to make certain I have all the right part numbers for my VAXstation 3100/30 to 4000/60 upgrade. Now, if I was ordering a DECpc, I could call DECdirect, order the DECpc and get DEClease information over the DECphone. Since it's a VAXstation being purchased through an upgrade program, I have to go through my local sales office, according to the DECadvisor. What a DECpain... Trying to save some aggravation, I call a friend in field service and ask him if he can have the appropriate salescritter give me a call. In the meantime, I mail a detailed letter containing the specs to my friend's attention so he can hand it off in person. Later that afternoon, I get a call from someone at the local DEC office who handles leases. I explain the situation, and he says he hasn't heard from a salesperson yet, but to get things moving I should send him the normal financial info on my business so they can do the lease evaluation. Guess the $650+ a month I've been paying to DEC for hardware and software maintenance for the last couple years doesn't count. Times are tough, though. And, frankly, I'm a lot more careful in extending credit myself. No call from the sales department. Thursday, July 29: I complete and mail my company financial data to the leasing person. No call from the sales department. Version 6 of VMS shows up. Hmm... should I install it this weekend or save myself a lot of trouble and wait for the new VAXstation, which should have preinstalled software? I'm an optimist. I'll wait. Friday, July 30: A very friendly and helpful (!) DEC salesperson calls, frankly informs me I could do a lot better getting the system from a distributor, and offers to supply me with some names and numbers. I thank him, tell him I wanted to go with DECdirect or a distributor in the first place, but was told I had to deal with the local sales office because of the upgrade and lease arrangements. He tells me no, I can work directly with my local distributor. He tells me to call him back if I have any problems, and that he'll check back with me, one way or the other, to see how things go. Fer sure. I call my friendly local distributor on the phone and fax her the specs. Since it's late afternoon, it'll be Monday before I get the quote from her. We discuss the situation, and she says DEC's priority seems to be selling PCs through DECdirect. Ironic, perhaps, since the margins on VAXstations would seem to be a lot higher and the follow-up sales (OpenVMS software, maintenance, etc.) a lot more lucrative than commodity PCs. Monday, August 2: The quote comes through from the distributor. It's actually a bit higher than the DECdirect catalog's list price. However, the distributor's price includes one year of on-site DECservice, which list pricing doesn't. I fax a copy of the quote to the DEC leasing guy at my local office, give him a call and leave a message on his voicemail. Tuesday, August 3: DEC calls; the lease has been approved. Despite dire warnings from a number of people, the lease pricing is quite competitive. The whole leasing arrangement was painless and professionally handled. Score one for DEC. Wednesday, August 4: I was too busy yesterday to fax a purchase order to the distributor, so I did it today, with a copy to DEC leasing. Monday, August 9: A whole mess of leasing documents arrives from DEC. Standard stuff; I give them my first born male child, they give me a VAXstation guaranteed to be obsolete 1/12th of the way through my 36 month lease. Monday, August 16: I call the distributor to check on the system's ship date. My salesperson's unavailable. I say I'll call back. Wedneday, August 18: The DEC sales rep calls to check on the status of my order through the distributor and asks if I need anything else. Wow! And the guy stands to make nothing from the sale! I take down his name and make a mental note to refer all of my clients to him in the future. Score another one for DEC. Friday, August 20: I call the distributor again. The system is scheduled to ship Monday, August 23, and arrive at the distributor on Friday, August 27. DEC ships by truck. Slow truck, it would seem. I'm writing this on Thursday, August 26. It's been about four weeks since I started the acquisition process. Maybe next month this column will be written on the new VAXstation. Of course, I still have to handle the modifications to my service and software support contracts. Stay tuned... ***** Small Consolation The following came over the Internet from an anonymous source within Digital after the mention in the August column: "I read the user's complaint in your column about the DECserver 90L power supply with the integral plug. "We don't exactly have an affection for that power supply, either. It was done as a cost-saving measure. I will apologize on behalf of Digital for using such an annoying power supply. [DEC has] paid its penance simply trying to use it in [its] labs. "I can tell you, however, that there is an international power supply for the DECserver 90L, DEC part number H7082-AB, which is designed, like the other DEChub 90 product power supplies, with a line cord receptacle, so that you can plug in a cord and run it wherever you wish. It's auto-ranging so the same supply works no matter what country's line cord you plug into it. You may even be able to order DECserver 90Ls with the international power supply instead of the regular ones. "Hope this helps. I am not an official spokesman or representative for Digital Equipment Corporation nor for the DECserver 90L product, but I thought I'd offer some unofficial assistance." ****** SCOPING IT OUT I received a number of messages from users commenting on the method described in the June issue for dealing with redefined symbols from within DCL command files. Most commented on using the SET SYMBOL/SCOPE command as the best way to handle symbol assignments. Thanks to Ron Kaltenbaugh of SYSCON and others who commented. We've covered SET SYMBOL/SCOPE in a number of columns, but the most recent was two years ago, in December '91. Your best bet is to check out the DCL Dictionary. As I pointed out in June, the method described was one of a variety of available approaches to the problem. The curmudgeon in me prefers the straightforward VMSINSTAL approach, namely $ DELETE/SYMBOL/GLOBAL/ALL. To paraphrase the meanie from the Stephen King novel Needful Things, "Delete 'em all and let the user sort it out..." ***** ECOLOGICAL MATTERS Donna Harrison, System Manager of Integrated Systems Analysts in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, commented on the extra blank page output problem with Hewlett-Packard printers under OpenVMS. "We have been using the /SEPARATE=NOTRAILER qualifier on our INIT/QUEUE line forEVER and still had the blank page problem. Actually, the entire qualifer we use is: /SEPARATE=(NOFLAG,NOBURST,NOTRAILER,RESET=RESET) "I incorporated the changes suggested [by a DEC DSNlink article] to modify the RESET module in our HP specific Device Control Library to read: ]VMS;2\PE\ "This fixed the problem on the HP and, of course, other HP Emulation printers," Donna concluded. Of course, my standard response is "I want a SET TERMINAL/DEVICE=HPLJ command." I don't want to hear how HP doesn't follow ANSI standards. David Dachtera of R.R. Donnelley & Sons' Metromail Division in Lombard, IL uploaded to my SYS$OUTPUT BBS an OpenVMS text library file containing lots of HP goodies, including the stuff necessary to implement my SET TERM wish. Look for HPSTUFF.TLB in the new uploads area of the BBS. And on the subject of ecology, DEC's saying the switch to perfect-bound manuals for the OpenVMS 6.0 documentation set is due to the "negative environmental" impact of binders. Gimme a break. My family recycles old VMS binders extensively, using them to hold everything from photos to sewing patterns. And how is throwing away an entire manual instead of replacing a few pages for documentation updates more environmentally correct? Don't get me wrong. I actually like the new format. All the manuals fit on a single bookshelf, right near the old VAXstation. The smaller format is easier to use in my limited office space. But don't use an ecological smokescreen, DEC. Just be honest and say you switched to the new format because it's a lot less expensive to produce. I'd guess the change netted DEC a good deal of profit. I've spent about $9K in the last three years for OpenVMS documentation and media update service, and there's no way it's cost DEC that amount to send me a couple cartons of docs and a dozen or so TK50s. One final suggestion: how about three-hole drilling the next printing so those of us who want to use our old binders can do so? ******** Thanks to Steve Privitor and Harry Flowers for their suggestions and .COM files. Remember, if you want your procedure published here, it has to be short, useful and non-site specific. ****************************** Kevin G. Barkes is an independent consultant who can't understand why proprietary OpenVMS is a "bad thing" while proprietary Windows NT is a "good thing", and wonders what the desktop computing world would look like if you could get OpenVMS for an Intel box at the local Egghead for $599. Kevin lurks on comp.os.vms and can be reached at kgbarkes@gmail.com.