I have been workign with MuMPS(Cache Objectscript) for the last 3 years. I'm working on writing the backend of a web application with it currently. In my experience the first 3 or so months are a little painful because the syntax is a little bizarre and the documentation is a little bit cumbersome. At the end of the day code is just code and its not all that bad.
Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
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Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#32I am entering data and running queries on a MUMPS system right now, over SSH running OpenVMS 8.4. Last application software update: 1999. I suspect we would keep using it, except, last I heard, HP off-shored their OpenVMS maintanance to India and declared, in like 2011, that it would be EOL'd in 2017. edit: I retract the statement that it's running on a PDP-11, though I have to say I was told that in teleconference j…
1. OpenVMS doesn't run on PDP-11. The only platforms it has ever supported are VAX, Alpha and Itanium. 2. OpenVMS is alive and well. It wasn't outsourced to India and it does not have EOL date. Currently it's being developed by VSI ( https://www.vmssoftware.com/ ) and they're porting it to x86.
perhaps I misrepresented "MPS w/o SE: Mature Product Support without Sustaining Engineering"
http://h41379.www4.hpe.com/openvms/openvms_supportchart.html
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#33Of the places I've encountered Mumps/Pick/Cache, there has always been that one gatekeeper guy - only he knew the arcane abbreviations and structure in his head, everyone else had to bow and scrape to get things done. Very good language if unmaintainable, arcane code and/or job security through obscurity is your thing. Cache even let it onto the web some years back I think with ObjectScript. Just wholly nasty. The po…
I remember full page ads for Cache in Datamation and similar IT-management-oriented publications, in the mid 1990s. They called it a "post-relational database" without ever really explaining what that meant.
InterSystems switched to advertising Caché as an "object" database sometime in the 2000s (at least that is when I first saw their ads, maybe it started earlier). I assumed it was something like ObjectStore. Definitely felt deceived when I found out what it really was.
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#34A lot of this language's unreadability is due to how it was originally interpreted instead of compiled because of the cost of memory at the time of its invention: > Since memory was tight originally, the language design for MUMPS valued very terse code. Thus, every MUMPS command or function name could be abbreviated from one to three letters in length, e.g. Quit (exit program) as Q, $P = $Piece function, R = Read com…
Also mentioned in the linked tutorial: Memory on early mini-computers was limited, sometimes only a few thousand characters. Mumps programs were loaded into memory as source code rather than as compiled binary. This was done because it was determined that compiled Mumps programs would be far larger than the corresponding source code versions, especially if the source code employed size reducing abbreviations. So why…
I’m not at all sure, but poking around on Wikipedia suggests that the idea of bytecode interpreters might have dated to roughly the same time as MUMPS, which means it wouldn’t have necessarily been the obvious choice at that time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-code_machine
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. OpenVMS doesn't run on PDP-11. The only platforms it has ever supported are VAX, Alpha and Itanium. 2. OpenVMS is alive and well. It wasn't outsourced to India and it does not have EOL date. Currently it's being developed by VSI ( https://www.vmssoftware.com/ ) and they're porting it to x86.
perhaps I misrepresented "MPS w/o SE: Mature Product Support without Sustaining Engineering" http://h41379.www4.hpe.com/openvms/openvms_supportchart.html
This date applies only to OpenVMS 8.4. New releases are planned, for example, 8.5 will be released this year. See the current roadmap: https://www.vmssoftware.com/pdfs/VSI_Roadmap_20171215.pdf
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#36The new finnish medical system I heard is being built with Mumps Accenture being the main contractor. Fun times, I imagine.
Total cost approx. 2 billion euros majority going to Accenture and Epic Systems (which if you didn't read thedailywtf recommend checking out). The new medical system in Estonia cost about 5 millions I heard. It's just incomprehensible to me how they are going spend 400 times more money with 5x more population.
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#37I work with it now, and I like it ....
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#38I had the distinct displeasure of working in a number of mumps derivatives for my first professional programming job. It's way too easy to write terrible code and even easier to write something that appears to work, but actually doesn't. What's even more terrifying is that these archaic languages still power a significant number of hospitals here in America. Hospitals haven't felt safe ever since.
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#39The new finnish medical system I heard is being built with Mumps Accenture being the main contractor. Fun times, I imagine. Total cost approx. 2 billion euros majority going to Accenture and Epic Systems (which if you didn't read thedailywtf recommend checking out). The new medical system in Estonia cost about 5 millions I heard. It's just incomprehensible to me how they are going spend 400 times more money with 5x m…
Epic is famous for being SUPER-expensive. One of my colleagues told me a story about how some place build a new hospital for I think $500Million and then the Epic installation was $600M. Granted, I think Epic is the most expensive of the EMRs, but it's crazy that Epic is price-effective in ANY way. Surprisingly it is for large hospitals. It's actually more cost-effective to use Epic than to use Athena
Re: Introduction to the Mumps Language (2017) [pdf]
#40I sat near Neil (MUMPS creator) at my first job. He definitely loves this creation of his.