If you want to put your OpenVMS system on the Internet or your Intranet, or you would like to use some of the open source tools on your OpenVMS system, VSM Software Services can show you the way.

In the past, OpenVMS systems have suffered from a lack of access to the tools developed by and for the open source community. This is no longer the case and OpenVMS Engineering is working to make it even easier to port such software.

To the right of this page you'll find links to a number of useful sites for locating and retrieving free software that runs on OpenVMS.

This page will give you an overview of some of those tools. Many of them are available pre-compiled for OpenVMS. We would be more than happy to assist you with incorporating them into your OpenVMS project.

Programming Languages

Although not free, the OpenVMS "C" compiler is almost a must-have. It's able to handle most Unix-derived software and often highlights programming shortcomings which the original Unix compilers missed.

Perl The Perl language, version 5.20.0 (as at July 2020) is readily available and works well on OpenVMS. Serious Perl users would do well to subscribe to the VMSPERL mailing list.
PHP Developed initially as a web server script processor, but now also used stand-alone, PHP has been ported to OpenVMS.
The WASD web server download page contains useful tips for locating and integrating PHP with any OpenVMS web server.
Python Python advocates find it does everything Perl can do but with a lot less confusion!

In addition to the above, Java is available for OpenVMS on Alpha and IA64 (but not VAX) and is officially supported by OpenVMS Engineering. The Java runtime is bundled with recent releases of the operating system but serious users will probably want to download the latest version and full development environment from here.

Databases

Every OpenVMS system comes with RMS Indexed Files. Too often these are neglected by application developers because they're considered "proprietary" or obsolete. This attitute fails to take into account the fact that they are consistently the most reliable way to store and access data in a shared environment with busy workloads, particularly across nodes in a VMScluster.

The popular MySQL database package has been ported to OpenVMS. In our experience it tends to work best on ODS-5 disks but it can work on ODS-2 disks if the application is carefully written. (For example, we found a situation where the database server could get confused about the existence of a table which was created using a mixed-case name and then accessed using an all-lowercase or all uppercase name, because the ODS-2 filesystem didn't preserve the name as it was originally specified.)

And of course, commercial databases such as Oracle, Rdb and InterSystems Caché are available too.

General Tools

Here are a few tools which we find indispensable in supporting our customers. These are available on the OpenVMS CD-ROM or our own archive site (see links at right).

Kermit An essential tool for anyone who has to use dialup "dumb terminal" access to a remote modem. The scripting capabilities are very useful; we used them to develop a "screen-scraping" approach to automating an interactive program for a customer.
DFU "Disk & File Utility" allows for fast locating of files by name and/or attribute. It works by searching INDEXF.SYS rather than by traversing the directory tree. Essential for efficiently deleting entire directories or directory trees.
WGET This tool makes it possible to retrieve files from web sites via a DCL command. Very useful for getting the latest Sophos virus updates!
SWING/MOST Distributed together, SWING is "graphical" directory browser for character cell terminals; MOST is a full screen file browser.
MMK Madgoat MaKe is a freeware substitute for the MMS component of DECset (aka VAXset). It can process the DESCRIP.MMS files which are often used to controlling the compile & link process of building an application.

We hope you find the tools you need. If you have any trouble locating the software described above, or want further advice, please feel free to ask ... we're happy to answer simple questions at no charge (but will of course advise if we think a fee for our services would be appropriate).

 

© VSM Software Services Pty.Ltd 2020. All rights reserved.

 


07:13:21 PM, Tuesday, May 7, 2024


OpenVMS Tools

Perl
Python
MySQL
VSM Freeware archive