End of SPIDER support on VMS platform
SPIDER and WEB remain in use at Albany on DEC Open-VMS computers.
However most of the new features such as
- Run-time allocation of memory
- Multiple inline files (temporary "files" sorted in memory)
- Inline image stacks (the capability to
access an entire file series as a single file)
- Multi-processing (making use of several processors through
special compiler options)
are not available in the Open-VMS version of SPIDER. VMS also has
significant problems handling large numbers of files within a
directory. Additionally, there is uncertainty about the level of
commitment of DEC to the continuation of Open-VMS. For these reasons,
we intend to phase out the VMS version of SPIDER. We expect that VMS
SPIDER will no longer be available after the end of 1997. Outside
sites which utilize SPIDER should consider this in their decision
making. Albany SPIDER users should make plans for converting their
work to Unix SPIDER.
For users with DEC Alpha workstations, we note that many such
workstations can be converted to run DEC Unix. We currently have
SPIDER/WEB running under DEC Unix (although we do not have much
experience with its use on DEC Unix).
Source: end.html
Last update: 3 Jan. 1997
ArDean Leith