  Acquiring old, retired software packages? 
 The Question is:
 
we bought a MV4000-505a which included a dtc04-aa
The company said the system included everything
it needed to run, but I have figured out that
I'm missing a layered product, I believe
"decvoice" that is now retired.
 
how can I get decvoice, albeit unsupported
for vms 7.1?
 
Please do not respond "since it is retired,
you can't get it". I dont believe that once
a product is retired that a gnome runs around
compaq deleting all known copies of said
software.
 
Please help me out.
 
Thanks
 
 The Answer is :
 
  The DTC04 DECvoice I Q-bus module does require the DECvoice VOX software
  kit, which is not part of OpenVMS itself.  Once you have the VOX software,
  you will have to acquire or write applications for it, or you will require
  the DECvoice Builder application-development package, or both.
 
  The OpenVMS Wizard is not aware of a way to acquire this software beyond
  a formal request to roll in and replicate an old OpenVMS layered product
  distribution kit, and the OpenVMS Wizard does not particularly know if
  this kernel-mode software will operate on recent OpenVMS VAX releases.
 
  When a product becomes unsupported, then yes, the equivilent of a little
  gnome (as you put it) can and often does delete the software source code
  involved.  Alternatively, little trolls -- more commonly refered to as
  "contractual requirements" -- can preclude the release of packages via
  the Freeware or other means.  (In the particular case of the DECvoice
  software, there are third-party royalties and third-party organizations
  involved, as all of the DECvoice devices involved soft-loaded microcode,
  and various of this microcode had third-party encumbrances.)
 
  The DECvoice Software SPD is 29.97.xx, UPI is VFUAA, and the last version
  that shipped was V2.4.  The DECvoice Software and the DECvoice Builder
  software products reached end-of-service-life and ceased shipping in
  December, 1999 -- the last consolidated distribution that contained the
  kits is September, 1999.  The DECvoice Builder and DECvoice Builder
  Run-Time UPIs are MQ7AA and MQ8AA, respectively.)
 
  The OpenVMS Wizard would simply remove the module from the Q-bus.  (For
  details on how to do this, please search for "serpentine" here in Ask The
  Wizard.)  If you need to use this particular Q-bus module, please contact
  the organization that sold it to you for further assistance.
 
 Answer written or last revised on  29-APR-2002 
