Reading OpenVMS documentation on Windows

[Wim Van den Wyngaert]

I used WASD HTTP server to convert VMS 6.2 bookreader to html (at run time). Thus I could browse the doc based upon the address of the VMS server running WASD.

And I still use for 7.3.

Wim

[Keith Cayemberg]

Hi Dan,

Compaq had a beta-version of BNU Reader for the PC (ODL PC Reader Software). This was included in a 2 CD OpenVMS Documentation set for the PC. A complete re-install update of the reader was provided on-line. I have found this page in the Internet Archive here...

http://web.archive.org/web/20040604090211/h71000.www7.hp.com/odl/index.html

I was also able to download and install the ODL PC Reader today from the Internet Archive, although the Zip self-extraction did not work for me. I had to open the zip archive with WinZip, extract to a subdirectory, and then run the set-up from there. The software is expecting the documentation to be found on the 2 original CDs it came with. However, you can reassign which device and directory the doc collections part 1 and 2 are to be found. This allowed copying the 2 CDs to your hard drive using a specially provided Copy Utility.

I have no idea whether this software can also be used to access the standard Bookreader Files of the standard OpenVMS ODL of the era. But it appears the application was an attempt to make OpenVMS Docs available to Windows NT PCs without having to translate the Bookreader Docs to HTML.

Yes, I do have the original 2 CDs that were used by the ODL PC Reader somewhere in storage. I have no idea at the moment which version of the OpenVMS Doc set was on the CDs, although I believe it was maybe v7.1 or v7.2.

Cheers!

Keith