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           %%    What's Hacking?                                     %%
           %%                          A series by David Lightman    %%
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           %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%-SPECIAL ISSUE-%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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           %%                  VAX COMPUTER SYSTEMS                  %%
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           This  is  a requested discussion from Jolly Bardsman's  Pub  &
        Tavern at (214) 690-4634.  If you have any requests, send me mail
        at any address listed below:

        USENET:  bdunn@attctc.dallas.tx.us
                 ... or ...
                 {texsun..texbell..}!attctc!bdunn

        TELEMAIL: csupport/a755.cc3556/tech.services/credit.data/isg/trw

        BBS's:
                 Elm Street           Jolly Bardsman's Pub & Tavern
                 Channel Z            Spyder's Web
                 Dead Zone            Abyssal Plane

                 Oblivion (if AO gets the d***! thing off the ground)

           By  03/06/90, you may connect to a beta Twilight Zone at  214-
        606-1413.   You may also reach me voice at  214-660-6054.   Limit
        the calls to an EXTREME minimum!

           If I get multiple requests about a topic (as I did with  VAX),
        I will put something online the WHAT'S HACKING? subboards and the
        beta system Twilight Zone ]I[.


        -----------------------------------------------------------------

        VAX:  The VAX acronym is derived from Virtual Address  eXtension.
              The VAX computer is designed to use memory addresses beyond
              the  hardware's actual limits, enabling it to  handle  pro-
              grams that are too large to fit into physical memory.   The
              VAX  computer system is a member of the  Digital  Equipment
              Corporation  (DEC)  computer  family.   Currently  the  VAX
              series includes models spanning the desktop VAX station  to
              mainframe class multi-CPU VAX processors.  These vary  from
              the superminis, like MicroVAX, to the older, moderate sized
              11/7XX  series, to the newer 6000 series.   These  computer
              systems commonly use an operating system known as VMS.

        VMS:  The VMS acronym is for Virtual Memory System.  The operands
              of  VMS are very similar to other operating systems.   Back
              in  the days of stand-alone computer systems, DEC  had  the
              idea for streamlining the operation of their computers  for
              business  and  engineering.  It conceived VMS as a  way  of
              allowing the basic computer management to be done by a user
              familiar with any of the multiple systems it made.

        DCL:  The DCL acronym is for Digital Command Language.  It is the
              fundamental language of the VMS.  Those of you who have  an
              IBM  system,  you can think of a DCL program like  a  batch
              file.  You can do a lot with it (much more than a PC-DOS or
              MS-DOS  batch)  but it work basically the  same  way.   One
              difference is that when you want to execute anything as  if
              you were typing it in at the command prompt, you first must
              put a "$" in front of the command in the DCL program.   DCL
              programs  are commonly called COM files as well.  When  you
              are not executing a COM or DCL program file, you are almost
              always typing things into the DCL processor.

