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Re: file location

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On 03/02/15 12:57, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> writes:
>> On 03/02/15 09:04, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
>>> Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> writes:
>
>>>> His name is Dave Cutler, yes, and he more or less copied over the
>>>> VMS kernel code into the NT kernel, but simply renamed the functions
>>>> and the variables.  That's why DEC fired him on the spot and sued
>>>> Microsoft, but Gates settled the matter out of court by paying DEC a
>>>> large sum of money and conceding to supporting DEC's Alpha processor
>>>> in NT.
>>>
>>> As far as I can tell this (intrinsically rather unlikely) claim is
>>> something that ‘Aragorn’ has simply made up.
>>
>> For once Richard, I am going to say you have let emotion get in the
>> way of accuracy and research.
>
> I don’t think so.  The reason I say Aragorn’s claim that NT is
> essentially VMS with the function names changed is implausible, is that
> they weren’t even written in the same languages.
>
>> It takes a very small amount of googling to come up with several
>> versions of this story, of which this is one:
>>
>> http://windowsitpro.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story
>
> ...which says:
>
>    Digital developers wrote the VMS kernel almost entirely in VAX
>    assembly language. To be portable across different CPU architectures,
>    Microsoft developers wrote NT’s kernel almost entirely in C.
>

I really think you are digging a hole here. I have reproduced ALL of a 
basic clib in assembler.

And the reverse is equally possible: The architecture of an operating 
system, how the communications go and how the interrupt architecture is 
formed are not language dependent.

Aragorn never said they copied the code exactly - he said 'more or less' 
  and that to me is certainly enough to allow for 'translation into a 
different language'.

What seems to be the case is that what was to become the next VMS 
version left, source and all,  with Cutler and 20 of his chums, got 
translated into C and  ended up as windows NT kernel. Why would they NOT 
make it as close to that as possible? they had already decided what the 
next version of VMS should be, and believed in their own efforts.. 
Naturally they would simply port it to *86  and C and then make it 
backwards compatible with windows.

They changed names, they changed language, but they duidnt change the 
functional architecture.



And Microsoft didnt bother to deny it, instead cutting a  deal with DEC 
to make NT run on DEC hardware and throwing in lots of cash.


-- 
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the 
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. – Erwin Knoll

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file location "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2015-01-30 18:00 -0500
  Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-01-31 00:08 +0000
  Re: file location Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2015-01-31 00:30 +0000
    Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-01-31 00:51 +0000
      Re: file location Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-01-31 09:03 +0000
        Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-01-31 18:14 +0000
          Re: file location "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2015-01-31 19:00 -0500
            Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-02-01 05:14 +0000
  Re: file location Zaphod Beeblebrox <none@none.org> - 2015-01-30 20:06 -0600
    Re: file location "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2015-01-31 18:54 -0500
      Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-01 04:52 +0100
        Re: file location "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2015-02-02 15:50 -0500
          Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-02 22:05 +0100
          Re: file location Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2015-02-02 22:29 +0000
            Re: file location "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2015-02-02 18:05 -0500
        Re: file location Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> - 2015-02-03 01:38 +0000
          Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-03 02:54 +0100
            Re: file location Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-02-03 09:04 +0000
              Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-03 11:27 +0100
                Re: file location Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-02-03 10:56 +0000
                Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-03 12:10 +0100
                Re: file location Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-02-03 18:39 +0000
                Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-04 01:51 +0100
                Re: file location Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-02-04 09:19 +0000
              Re: file location The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-02-03 12:21 +0000
                Re: file location Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2015-02-03 12:57 +0000
                Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-02-03 16:58 +0000
                Re: file location John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2015-02-03 11:24 -0600
                Re: file location The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-02-03 18:21 +0000
                Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-02-04 01:11 +0000
                Re: file location The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-02-04 10:24 +0000
                Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-02-04 23:19 +0000
                Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-05 00:34 +0100
                Re: file location William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-02-04 01:08 +0000
                Re: file location The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-02-03 17:20 +0000
            Re: file location "Bill Cunningham" <nospam@nspam.invalid> - 2015-02-03 14:47 -0500
              Re: file location Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2015-02-04 02:10 +0100

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