Three decades of continuous development, of bug fixing, of innovation, of
VMS-driven software, open sourced, free of charge and at no cost.
From [SRC.HTTPD]VERSION.H
20-JUN-1994 MGD v1.0.0
The first official entry in what became WASD's version log. Of course,
tinkering around the edges had been underway for some time before that.
Being a VMS systems manager / software developer / general dogsbody in a
medium size science and engineering workplace at the cusp of commodity
computing in the late '80s there was a great deal of data being stored and
analysed. Of course compared to a decade later, and decade later than that,
and yet another decade on ("All right, Stan. Don't labour the point.")
the data were relatively minimal. Nevertheless, online access to and
management of these, associated data descriptions, products, reports, papers
and analyses was a commonplace problem in search of a solution.
1993 For the preceding twelve months we had been experimenting with the
~~~~ University of Minnesota's Gopher system when mid-year my boss plus one
returned from the USA spruiking a file format, HTML, and an application,
Mosaic. Some (hard copy) descriptions of the Hypertext Markup Language and
the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, along with an off-site demonstration of
Mosaic, was compelling. The Gopher solution was left in place while we
experimented with something variously termed WWW, W3 and Web.
1994 It was preferred to support this WWW environment on a VMS platform;
~~~~ at the time the most widely used and accessible within the workplace.
At that time servers (and even then there were a few variations) were largely
Unix based, although they were being supported (to a greater or lesser
extent) across a wider range of platforms. Ports, if they existed, were
often in-progress or half-baked, employing Unixisms that didn't translate
elegantly to the then V5 VAX/VMS environment.
The VMS version of the CERN server was evaluated mid-1994.
It was not multi-threaded under VMS (i.e. could not support concurrent
clients). The performance was good with document transfers, but became poor
when running a script (spawning subprocesses on VAX/VMS was slow).
An early version of the OSU server was reviewed via documentation mid-1994.
It was considered that the DECthreads of the time to have limitations (being
AST event driven, with frequent, show-stopping bugs) and OSU had a number of
implementation idiosyncrasies (e.g. DECnet based scripting).
Too severe an assessment in retrospect. Threads lend elegance.
HTTP, especially the then standard implementation HTTP/1.0, was relatively
simple to implement to the level required to support workplace requirements.
So with a handful of paper to guide started coding (again) on VAX.
1995 Build on Alpha architecture.
~~~~ VMS is VMS.
1997 CGI based scripting was always a feature but now a much more
~~~~ efficient process management introduced along with CGIplus, where an
instantiated script (in a process) remains waiting for another request.
CGIplus proves itself a useful addition time and again.
1998 First made available on "the Web".
~~~~ Courtesy Jeremy Begg amd VSM Software Services.
1999 OpenSSL support. Secure Sockets Layer had been supported by WASD
~~~~ since late '97 using the primal SSLeay libraries but OpenSSL marks when
the Web becomes serious (even considering the prohibitively restrictive
EXPORT ciphers of the time).
2000 CGIplus lends itself to the Run-Time Environment (RTE) allowing
~~~~ low-latency scripting engines and similar capability, eventually
providing for FastCGI, Perl, PHP, Python, SOAP and the like.
2002 Purchased a couple of affordable Alpha PWS via eBay and set up a
~~~~ development system at home. The fan-noisy box was quickly relegated to
a spare room. The other PWS cannibalised over the years.
2004 A decade on, WASD now complies with the HTTP/1.1 specification and
~~~~ provides a very respectable range of functionality, VMS applications,
and the fastest and most efficient serving environment for VMS.
Build on Itanium architecture. VMS is VMS is VMS.
2011 HTML5 and its WebSocket functionality allows WASD to support long
~~~~ duration, multi connection apps such as aLaMode, DCLinabox, MonDeSi.
Another capability enabled by underlying CGIplus.
2014 A SECOND DECADE on, WASD v10 is UNDER CARE AND MAINTENANCE.
~~~~ With HP seemingly abandoning VMS there was little point to further
development. Just keeping WASD warm and comfortable.
Then ... VMS Software Inc!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://vmssoftware.com/about/faq/
2016 Embalming fluid re-stoppered. The year brings HTTP/2 to WASD.
~~~~ A replacement for how HTTP is expressed "on the wire" with semantics
staying much the same and the focus of the protocol on network efficiencies.
2021 WASD on x86-64 as v12
~~~~ VMS is VMS is VMS is VMS.
32 bit (VAX) obsoleted in favour of 64 bit native data.
2024 Three decades! Thirty years!! Four architectures.
~~~~ With V9.2-2 largely functional and stable, development this year has
moved to x86, meaning the twenty-five year old Alpha is no longer critical.
Why? Initially, to garner some familiarity with VMS 'under the hood'.
~~~~ Systems management of multiple clusters, at one point eighty nodes,
along with expansive and disparate data storage and backup, kept me busy
enough even with a couple of assisting staff. It was an opportunity to do
something else. After a decade and a half, with the waning of VMS in the
workplace, my activities morphed into a more generic development role, and
then finally into project and team management. WASD let me continue with VMS
after hours. Then (early) retirement. Now a pleasant diversion and pastime,
letting me still keep up with VMS. The psychology of *giving* away all that
effort I choose not to understand.
Yes! Long-time VMS user,
~~~~ VAX/NOTES was in the mix way back in W3 pre-history.
https://worldwideweb.cern.ch/history/
https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web
https://cds.cern.ch/record/369245/files/dd-89-001.pdf
This item is one of a collection at
https://wasd.vsm.com.au/other/#occasional
|