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From: WangVS on 5 Feb 2010 14:21
The Wang VS environment is perhaps the friendliest and most stable
traditional COBOL environment available today. The Wang VS is a mid-
size mainframe supporting up to about 1,000 users and devices. It is
now available as the New VS, a virtual system running in Linux on Dell
PowerEdge servers. About 90 New VS systems have been sold in 11
countries since its introduction in 2005.

No, it's not free. It's a serious production environment for back
office business data processing with full support for the VS Operating
System, COBOL 74 and 85 and a host of utilities and facilities
including Resource Sharing Facility clustering, Integrated Virtual
Tape, powerful workstation emulation and file transfer, and bridges
between the VS and Linux environments for file transfer and process
execution.

The Wang VS has a consistent history going back to 1977 when the first
VS was released. The last legacy machines were released in 1999 and
2000, and the entire product line was virtualized in 2004.
Performance in the virtual line now ranges up to about three times the
fastest legacy system. Enhancement of the VS OS to 2,000 users and
devices is about to be released.

General information about the Wang VS is available here:

The Unofficial Wang VS Information Center
http://www.tjunker.com/

The official New VS has its home here:

TransVirtual Systems
http://www.transvirtualsystems.com/

Note: Wang Laboratories was acquired by Getronics in 1999. Getronics
was later acquired by KPN. Getronics North America, including the VS
technologies, was acquired by Compucom in 2008. The New VS is a
cooperative effort of TransVirtual Systems and Compucom and is
available exclusively from TransVirtual Systems.
From: Pete Dashwood on 5 Feb 2010 19:11
WangVS wrote:
> The Wang VS environment is perhaps the friendliest and most stable
> traditional COBOL environment available today. The Wang VS is a mid-
> size mainframe supporting up to about 1,000 users and devices. It is
> now available as the New VS, a virtual system running in Linux on Dell
> PowerEdge servers. About 90 New VS systems have been sold in 11
> countries since its introduction in 2005.
>
> No, it's not free.

Can I get a hacked version from Bit Torrent?

>It's a serious production environment for back
> office business data processing with full support for the VS Operating
> System, COBOL 74 and 85 and a host of utilities and facilities

Serious, huh?

No point asking for World of Warcraft as a "sweetener", then?

How about a COBOL API to Facebook?... no?

> including Resource Sharing Facility clustering, Integrated Virtual
> Tape, powerful workstation emulation and file transfer, and bridges
> between the VS and Linux environments for file transfer and process
> execution.

Are there Trolls under the bridge...?
>
> The Wang VS has a consistent history going back to 1977 when the first
> VS was released. The last legacy machines were released in 1999 and
> 2000, and the entire product line was virtualized in 2004.
> Performance in the virtual line now ranges up to about three times the
> fastest legacy system.

Hang on a minute. You just said the last legacy machines were released 10
years ago.

So a machine today should be 16 times faster (applying Moore's Law - speed
and power double every 2 years).

3 times the speed seems a bit of a gyp... (Are you sure I can't have World
of Warcaft?... How about Halo 3 then?)


> Enhancement of the VS OS to 2,000 users and
> devices is about to be released.
>

Does each user get 1/2000th of the possible processor speed?

> General information about the Wang VS is available here:
>
> The Unofficial Wang VS Information Center
> http://www.tjunker.com/
>
> The official New VS has its home here:
>
> TransVirtual Systems
> http://www.transvirtualsystems.com/
>
> Note: Wang Laboratories was acquired by Getronics in 1999. Getronics
> was later acquired by KPN. Getronics North America, including the VS
> technologies, was acquired by Compucom in 2008. The New VS is a
> cooperative effort of TransVirtual Systems and Compucom and is
> available exclusively from TransVirtual Systems.

I'm sorry about the above :-)

You waved a red rag when you said "serious" and COBOL 74 in the same
sentence...

Seriously, I wish you success with your venture.

Pete.

--
"I used to write COBOL...now I can do anything."


From: James J. Gavan on 6 Feb 2010 00:44
Pete Dashwood wrote:
> WangVS wrote:
>
>>The Wang VS environment is perhaps the friendliest and most stable
>>traditional COBOL environment available today. The Wang VS is a mid-
>>size mainframe supporting up to about 1,000 users and devices. It is
>>now available as the New VS, a virtual system running in Linux on Dell
>>PowerEdge servers. About 90 New VS systems have been sold in 11
>>countries since its introduction in 2005.
>>
>>No, it's not free.
>
> I'm sorry about the above :-)
>
> You waved a red rag when you said "serious" and COBOL 74 in the same
> sentence...
>
> Seriously, I wish you success with your venture.

It's a shame about the company I knew as Wang Laboratories. Like so many
others, including your COBOL 'BRUNCH' they have bitten the dust.

Steve Jobs I think was on his own, or did he have a partner ? Bill
Gates, well he started with a quartet. But these innovators, primarily
in pairs, did so many successful start-ups, but they didn't keep up the
pace, or just didn't hire the right people to help them with marketing
or financing.

So far as COBOL is concerned, when you looked at some of the early texts
about COBOL, their manuals started, "It is assumed the developer is
already familiar with COBOL....". Not so, this boyo never went to
university and taught himself out of necessity to try and earn a living.

Messrs Ryan and McFarland gave us RM/COBOL, Messrs A and B created Micro
Focus. All four now gonzo, plus many others. Then on Jan 28th I get an
e-mail from the President of Oracle. Subject "Oracle Finalizes
Acquisition of Sun". That was it - no text just the e-mail heading block.

Having learned the DATABUS language for the Datapoint computer, sold in
Canada by TRW Systems, I wrote the original application for Corrosion
Testing at Oil and Gas plants. My buddy the branch sales manager, (there
were only three staff, himself, secretary and a Brit as his tech
helper), decided because of the $zillions in commissions he was making
on sales, that it might be a good idea if he switched to Wang. Told me
they were the best thing since sliced bread and as I was no longer
welcome by his replacement, I followed. (Before I forget, he made the
same $zillions with Wang - and finished up with a franchise for
Photography. As a hobbyist he was already an excellent photographer.
Don't know what happened to him after his marriage broke up; he just
didn't want to associate with old acquaintances - fresh start).

Primarily Wang were into two things, BASIC and their dedicated W/P
desktop units which with the stroke of perhaps two keys triggered
macros, Open, Close, Save, Save As, Delete, Insert, Find etc.......
Michael M. is going to 'hate me' but I thought of Basic as being Mickey
Mouse compared to what the Datapoint offered - integration between the
programming language (DATABUS) and the OS. So I opted the W/P route at
Wang to program the macros tying them together. I earned a few pence for
a while on two major applications.

Fuzzy memory - but I'm talking approx 1977/1979. A marketing thing for
Wang third-party software folks was being held in Seattle, Wa. I went,
(somebody else very kindly picking up the tab for air fare,
accommodation and food). The Wang tech team, based in New Hampshire were
excellent. Participants abut a dozen of us. The emphasis was on their
enhanced BASIC language, and they did a very good presentation.

Now here's the point showing where innovators lose out, not because of
their current vision but not looking for a newer forward vision, to
carry them to the next step. As they went through the language, at the
latter part of the course they covered a topic which seemed familiar to
me, and they were in 1978/79 offering it as something BRAND NEW AND
EXCITING. I heard the word 'Indexing' being used. So politely, I
interjected and asked for confirmation, "Are you describing where you
have keys which let you randomly get at records ? As an analyst, I was
using RCA's Magnetic Card File and ICL languages, back in 1964, to do
exactly that".

1978 - 1964 = 14 years. Pregnant pause before they could carry on.

(That's a bit reminiscent of 1985 - 2002 = 17 years :-) )

Jimmy, Calgary AB
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