Calling the products its "vintage" software and systems, HP's Customer Support organization announced end-of-support-life dates for all MPE V products running on CISC-based HP 3000s, as well as the "Classic" HP 3000 computers themselves. HP will turn out the support lights on September 1, 1998 for all of its MPE V systems, the operating system and much of the subsystem software built around the CISC-based HP 3000s.
Classic HP 3000s still operate in companies around the world, even though HP stopped selling them many years ago. HP estimated that it had shipped more than 20,000 Classic HP 3000s, as of 1986. Last year Series 37, 37XE and Micro 3000 systems left support, and Series 39, 40, 42, 44, 48, 52, 58, 64, 68 and 70 systems go off support in January, 1998. HP turns out the lights on the last of the Classics -- the LX, RX, GX and XE models of the Micro 3000 -- in September, 1998.
HP said it's pulling support for Compatibility Mode (CM) software products that have a Native Mode equivalent under MPE/iX systems. HP will continue support for CM products used on MPE/iX systems which don't have equivalent Native Mode counterparts. For example, products like Edit/V and NS/3000 V have equivalent NM counterparts so will therefore have support end on September 1, 1998.
MPE V versions of products leaving support include MPE V itself, Report, System Dictionary, NS/3000, NS X.25, TurboStore, SRC, ThinLAN 3000 Link, SNA products, RJE and NRJE products, EDIT, Security Monitor, APS/3000, DS/3000, OPT/3000, Flexible Disc Copy, Visor products, Migration Toolset, TapeMaker, EasyTime, Business Report Writer, SEARCH, BROWSE, Database Tools, OpenView System Manager Managed Node, Glance Plus, DeskManager products, File/Library and Maintenance Toolkit.
Another set of products will have a partial end of life. Their MPE V versions will no longer be supported but HP will continue to support the software if it's run under Compatibility Mode on MPE/iX systems. Products in this category include all of HP's compilers under MPE V -- SPL, FORTRAN, RPG, Pascal, Business Basic and Basic/V and COBOL II/V. Support will also end under MPE V for Inform, Transact, Dictionary/V, Scientific Library/3000, DBChange, TDP and Process Monitor.
Several longtime HP 3000 developers have suggested that HP donate the use of the MPE/V versions of a few of the compilers as teaching aids and freeware. In particular, Basic and SPL came in for praise from Wirt Atmar of AICS, who noted that "If HP has abandoned Basic, it would be an extraordinary gift to the MPE user community to make it and SPL legal freeware. Basic still remains the easiest language to build complex, easy string-manipulating software that must interact with IMAGE databases."
Atmar noted that HP originally expected that the vast majority of the application programs written for the HP 3000 would be written in Basic, and therefore it invested heavily 25 years ago in putting together an extremely well designed language.
Bruce Toback, a developer of HP 3000 software, said that Basic/V "is an incredibly useful API scripting language. If it's no longer of any value to HP, either placing it in the public domain or releasing it with a GPL-type license would be a no-cost way of providing a substantial benefit to the user community."
Chris Bartram, a developer whose company hosts a Web site of shareware for the HP 3000 (www.3kassociates.com) said donating the MPE V versions of Basic and SPL fits with HP's new policy of relying on shareware for its HP 3000 customers.
"It certainly doesn't hurt anything at this point to make it freeware,
and fits in well
with the wealth of other freeware programs that are becoming available on
the
platform -- almost all without "official" support or significant
investments from HP."
HP has posted a set of Web page to describe its efforts in shutting down the vintage software. Information is available at www.hp.com/wsco-support/31 aVinList.html.