SIG Collection

Overview

Welcome to the new home of the VMS/Language & Tools SIG software collection. For the last 30 years the SIG tapes have been providing OpenVMS (once VMS and VAX/VMS) customers with a myriad of useful tools and handy utilities. Until recently the keeper, compiler and distributor of these tapes was Glenn Everhart. This torch has since been passed to Tim Sneddon who has now taking over Glenn's role.

This page is now 'the place' for all things related to the VMS SIG tapes. If you have any comments, queries or suggestions then please contact Tim Sneddon.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

The VMS/Language & Tools SIG software collection is accepting submissions for the next distribution.  If you have any software you would like to submit, or maybe you've just seen something worth while.  Please follow the instructions below and contact the maintainer.

Submissions will be accepted until January 1st 2010.  Get in quick and be sure that your software makes it in.

Archive

All previous releases of the SIG tapes are available from the DECUSLIBrary.COMpendium here:

• http://www.decuslib.com/

This archive includes software from other SIGs software collections including RSX and PDP-11.

For those unable to download the software, or wish to receive annual updates via physical media, then please see the section below.

Distribution

Traditionally the VMS SIG tapes have, as the name suggests, been distributed by tape. These days the preffered physical media is CD or DVD (depending on the quantity of software) or FTP. For those wanting a copy of the physical media, or who are interested in joining the distribution tree then please contact Tim Sneddon and register your interest. Otherwise all current and previous releases of the SIG tapes can be downloaded from the archive link above.

Contribute

To make contributions to the VMS/L&T SIG Collection, please use this form. Before communicating your intent to contribute to the maintainer, please consider packaging your software in accordance with the following suggestions.  These suggestions are not to be considered as requirements for the acceptance of software.  They are intended to help make the structure of the submissions somewhat more consistent.

1. If your submission is large or naturally fits into several directories, submit it as a directory tree.

2. There should be ONE AAAREADME.TXT with each submission.  The following information should be included for each program or group of programs:

   • A brief description of the program or group of related programs.
   • The names of previous submissions which this submission replaces.
   • The name of the person primarily responsible for putting the submission together.

     If you use RUNOFF to generate this file don't hide the source
     under another name, use AAAREADME.RNO.  TEMPLATE.RNO contains the primary
     runoff commands needed to generate this type of file.

3. There should be sufficient documentation for each program or group of programs.  The file containing or pointing to this documentation should have a .DOC extension.  If your documentation is somewhere else, say, as comments in the program, a .DOC file is still useful to tell people where to find the it.  This is good place to put the name of the author, whether or not he is interested in bug/improvement reports, and, if he is willing to take telephone inquiries, his phone number.

4. The intent of the above paragraphs is to provide two levels of  documentation - one very brief which is available in each submission as AAAREADME.TXT or collectively in [VAX000]AAAREADME.yyy and another with more detail in files with a .DOC extension.  The first idea is enforced on most of the recent tapes with AAAREADME.TXT's added by the librarian as necessary.  The second part is more a request than a requirement but some file renaming has been done to fit into this pattern.

5. To get your submission in it should be packaged using BACKUP.  Submission packaged with Zip, tar and tar+gzip will will also be accepted.  However, there are occasional issues with these utilities and so BACKUP is the preferred method for submission (a zipped saveset if preferectly acceptable also).
   
   FTP is the preferred method for receiving submissions.  This can either be collected by the maintainer from a publically available system or transmitted by the submitter.  Either way, please indicate how the package should be collected in your submission email.

   Physical media submission will still be accepted.  If this is the only way you can send in your submission, please contact the maintiner to arrange this.