[Info-vax] OT: IBM Offering $9-10 Per Share for Sun

[Christopher]

On Apr 5, 6:23 pm, Arne Vajhøj <a... at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
> Christopher wrote:
> > On Apr 5, 3:59 pm, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> wrote:
> >> Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> >>> But I find it very difficult to believe that it is something
> >>> where the "let a handful of engineers do a little work in their
> >>> spare time" approach will produce anything usable.
> >> Usable ? No. Proof of concept that is usable as basis to do a full
> >> fledged port, Yes.
>
> >> The first thing that needs to be done is to find out how VMS can work
> >> within today's 8086 architectures (modes, memory protection, registers
> >> etc). Then they need a cross compiler to get the early stuff compiled
>
> > A cross compiler is not necessary. gcc will compile the code handily
> > on an x86 windows, linux, or solaris box.
>
> I don't think GCC will output all necessary stuff - VMS linking and
> object files do have some VMS specific features.
>
> Arne

A POC doesn't need to link against pre-existing VMS binaries.  Just
compile all the code with gcc and use the standard linker.