Do you want to be an OpenVMS application developer? If you don’t know what it is, you probably don’t need this book, but if you do, you’ve found the seemingly most comprehensive and readable guide to doing it. Roland Hughes’ offering, “The Least You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer” is a wealth of information you can’t afford to do without.
Here is some background: “OpenVMS (Open Virtual Memory System) is a high-end computer server operating system. As a multi-threaded, multi-user virtual memory-based operating system (OS), it is designed for time-sharing, per-processing use.” batch processing, real-time, and transaction processing. Offers high system availability through clustering and distributes the system across many machines.” In other words, you need to know this!
This is not a beginner’s guide, to be sure. However, those in the IT industry will be grateful to Hughes when he describes the uses of: MMS and CMS tools from the widely used DECSET OpenVMS CDD FMS software development toolkit RDB and MySQL databases. He describes other tools found in OpenVMS application development, such as VMSMAIL and PHONE. The book works with readers through a single application that is developed in DEC BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, and C++ using a variety of tools. Full source code is provided on the attached CD.
Hughes’s language is easy to understand. He doesn’t talk over readers’ heads, or speak badly, and I take it from him not in the dry textbook form he may be used to. He uses humor and straightforward guidance, making this probably one of the most readable IT guides out there.
Drawing on his vast experience and knowledge, Hughes rewards himself and the reader with a final chapter on the field of IT. His guidance here is not so technical but rather personal in deciding where a developer wants to work. His attention to company restrooms is something he didn’t expect to read about, but it’s probably invaluable information. If he wants to be an OpenVMS application developer, this is the book he needs.
“The minimum you need to know to be an OpenVMS application developer”
By Roland Hughes
ISBN-10: 0977086607
Review by Heather Froeschl
