How Big Is VMS? – VMS Software, Inc

This question was asked during my Boot Camp presentation last fall in Boston, and over the past 35 years dozens of times people have asked, how big is VMS? That translates into "how many lines of code are in VMS"? I thought it was time to at least make a stab at pursuing some insight into the answer. I wrote some command procedures to count the number of source lines in .B32, .B64, .C, .MAR, .M64, and .S files. Not counted are blank lines and lines beginning with the standard comment characters and miscellaneous directives for the particular language. First, I needed a baseline definition of 'VMS'. Does it include layered products, networking, compilers, RTLs, debuggers, open source, etc.? Is it the code on a particular running system? Does it include command procedures? I said 'no' to all of the above and as a starting point chose 15 facilities which are representative of identifiable components of the system: ACPI , AUDSRV, CLUSTER, DCL, DRIVER, F11X, JOBCTL, LAN, PCSI, RMS, SCS ... Read full article.