David M Williams
Thursday, 20 August 2009 19:24
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The man behind VMS, Dave Cutler, went on to produce Windows NT for Microsoft and similarities can be found, in concepts if not in implementation.
I first encountered VMS on a VAX during my two-week year 10 work experience period in 1987 as per the secondary school curriculum.
I grew up in a mining town and the local mines were always popular choices for work experience, particularly among those likely to take up trade apprenticeships.
I gained admission to take work experience at one such mine, in the EDP - or Electronic Data Processing - department, as IT was then known.
I was transfixed by the multi-user environment experienced through dumb text terminals, replete with electronic mail and a split-screen chat program called phone.
My family obtained our first home computer in 1984, the year I began high school. I took to the venerable Commodore 64 like a duck to water, learning programming through osmosis as I typed in program listings from books and magazines.
Yet, despite this I always assumed I'd take up accounting as a profession because this was the consistent recommendation from career advisors who seemed to assume a mathematical bent only lead in one direction.
From mid 1987 that thought was no more! My subsequent career including even this very column for iTWire is a direct result of that formative experience, my path set by two weeks spent at Lemington Mine (since merged into the Rio Tinto/Coal and Allied Hunter Valley Operations super-mine.)
I began studying Computer Science at University in 1990. The central University facilities were like an old friend, the VAX/VMS combo. Ever keen to know more I devoured VMS manuals.
Yet, soon I would be courting a new love.
