Vax

has anybody heard of: VAX

it is used by some governmental agencies to send ASCII files thru a modem, usually for billing purposes.

if someone has heard of it then is it possible to get VB code for this system?

VAX is a line of computers made by Digital Equipment Corp [which was bought by Compaq]. The were very popular in the '80s and '90s. Many are still in use today. They were the successor to the PDP-11 line of processors.

ok. that is what i suspected.

imagine a government entity using an outdated system.

thanks for the info!!!!!!!

p.s.
do you know if it takes a VAX system to send the files to the other VAX system?

There is not enough information available to determine the file sending requirements.

maybe this could add some infos
http://search.hp.com/gwuseng/query.h...for&submit.x=5
about talking a language vax could understand, it could be
helpful to have a look at some Vax emulators

A pretty good link, but be aware that not all VAX's are running Open/VMS!

Most of the early machines communicated using the DECNET protocol, later this was mgrated to IP.

The biggest issue is going to be the file format, rather than the transfer mechanism. Most of the file formats were proprietary or at least poorly documented.

My firm has been involved in this issue for over 20 years, but right now there are not enough details to provide any "answers".

Feel free to contact me off list.

David.

i will let you know what i find out. i am currently waiting on information about the VAX system(server serial & obligation id).
it looks like windows software is available to connect to the VAX.

the file i need is an ASCII format file. i have the specs and it looks like a simple ASCII file that can be created by string handling.

here is a sample:

@1 means starting at column 1

@1 Billing period(MMYY) - 4 bytes

@5 Invoice date(MMDDYY) - 6 bytes

it then goes on to @65 with other required info.

it also says that it must end with standard ASCII carriage return/line feed charactors which should be vbCRLF

from this does it look like i am correct?


thanks to everybody for the info.

remind me something related to As400...
you could have to use fixed length strings:
dim sText as string * 3
is a three byte string....

line feed and charriage return: you're correct.
it stands for chr(13)+chr(10) which indeed is VbCrlf

Have fun.
Cesare

thanks again for the additional info.


it looks like they use string handling to retrieve the data from the ASCII file after it arrives. i would never expected it to be this simple, but i guess that i am not finished yet!

i did not really think about fixed length strings which would be a good idea.

Ron