Related Publications

1. The OpenVMS novice is encouraged to read Digital Press's OpenVMS User's Guide, second edition, by Patrick Holmay. If you've never used OpenVMS before, this is the best introduction available to OpenVMS's basic commands, editors, the file structure, and an introduction to command procedures (i.e., script writing).

2. A second OpenVMS novice book also published by Digital Press (but originally imprinted as CBM Books) is called Introduction to OpenVMS, fourth edition, by Lesley Ogilvie. This book is a more cursory treatment of OpenVMS than the User's Guide, but it covers more territory.

3. Although it is a bit dated now, OpenVMS Software Overview is a good introductory document that defines many of the OpenVMS capabilities and features.

4. The Software Product Description (SPD) for OpenVMS 7.3 is called Compaq OpenVMS Operating System for Alpha and VAX, Version 7.3.

5. The OpenVMS online HELP facility is easy to use and a complete reference.

6. I've found the best starting point to reach the user community is www.levitte.org/~ava/. This site seems to point to everything else available, including DEC/Compaq/HP sites.

7. The official FAQ is www.openvms.compaq.com/wizard/openvms_faq.html. This information is actively updated regularly; however, this isn't the only FAQ available. See www.levitte.org/~ava/vms_faq.htmlx for others.

8. The command language bible is Writing Real Programs in DCL by Anagnostopoulos and Hoffman. This is required reading for system managers.

9. Hewlett-Packard maintains OpenVMS training for system managers online at www.openvms.compaq.com/training.html.

10. Ken Olsen's biography, and Digital's too of course, is recorded in The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation by Rifkin and Harrar. It was published in 1988, so it's not the whole story.

11. Digital At Work: Snapshots from the First Thirty-Five Years, edited by Jamie Pearson, is a composite of recollections and some great pictures. This book was published in 1992, so no Alpha stories are included.

12. Computer Engineering: A DEC View of Hardware Systems Design, by Bell, Mudge, and McNamara, contains the nitty-gritty of the hardware design constraints DEC engineers had to manage. Gordon Bell was DEC's chief hardware architect.

    Although technologically dated, Bell's general observations probably still hold in computer design today.

13. Guide to OpenVMS File Applications describes OpenVMS files types and their applications.