[COFF] Re: VAX/VMS 4.4 Source Listing?

[Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com>]

On 2/6/23, Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 6, 2023, 1:25 PM Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> wrote:
[quoting a VMS developer friend of his]
>>
>> *I had a complete copy of the master source pack in Marlborough during
>> the
>> Aquarius development/debug time; I know I put backup tape of that into
>> the
>> CHM.  That has the CMS library which would go back to at least V1.  (That
>> would be c.a. 1987-9.)  But the master*
>>
>> V1 is 77-79... or is the CMS from that time?

I worked at one of the VAX-11/780 hardware beta test sites back in
1977-79.  The machine ran VAX/VMS verison X0.5 at first, later
upgraded to V1.0.

I joined DEC in 1980 in the Methods & Tools software engineering
group.  At that time they were working on a tool called the System for
Tracking the Evolution of Programs (STEP).  This was a version control
system using ideas from Unix's SCCS.  The name STEP had trademark
issues and so it was rechristened Code Management System (CMS).  I
think it was first released by DEC as a product in 1982.

STEP would have been in early stages of development during the time
that VMS 1.0 was being developed.  The VMS group at that time used a
tool called SLP as the core of their configuration management system.
SLP could compare two versions of a text file and create a patch file
(these were called "slipper packets") to convert one into the other.
Configuration management consisted of keeping collections of slipper
packets.

The VMS development group converted to CMS ca. 82/83.  I don't know
which version of VMS was the base version for their CMS library.  They
probably started with the archived V1.0 release sources.  But their
CMS library would not have recorded the development history of V1.0.

-Paul W.