[Info-vax] BOINC for VMS

[Steven Schweda]

On Mar 7, 4:11 pm, seasoned_geek <rol... at logikalsolutions.com> wrote:
> Does anyone happen to have a link to a supported BOINC client for
> OpenVMS Alpha?  [...]

   I'd guess that you're doomed on Alpha, and nearly doomed
on IA64.  The last time I looked at BOINC (2006), I was
frustrated by the lack of support in the C RTL for UNIX
sockets and shm*() shared memory functions.  On Alpha (all I
had at the time?), the real killer was that the C++ Standard
Library was built (only) with /FLOAT = G_FLOAT, and BOINC
demands IEEE.

   So, assuming that the BOINC code is no more demanding now
than it was then (and I wouldn't bet on it), all you'd need
to do on IA64 would be to write (or work around) the missing
parts of the C RTL.  On Alpha, you'd also need an IEEE build
of the/a C++ Standard Library.

   Facing those obstacles, my interest waned, so I haven't
kept up with developments.  Perhaps in the six years since I
tried it, HP (or someone else) has filled in the missing C
RTL features, and started supplying an IEEE C++ Standard
Library on Alpha.  But I doubt it.  Now that I, as a
hobbyist, can't get to VMS patches, the probability that I'll
invest more time in it is pretty low.

   I still have the six-year-old stuff lying around as I left
it, if anyone is interested, but its value, never very great,
has probably declined over time.  A little searching should
find related (old) discussions in comp.os.vms, but you no
doubt did that before asking.