[Info-vax] Moving away from OpenVMS

[John Reagan]

"Bob Koehler"  wrote in message 
news:Fr+gezjxaCrO at eisner.encompasserve.org...


   >VAX has a calling standard.  VMS obeys it.  I suspect ULTRIX and
   >VAXeln obey it, but I'm not so sure about or all the other UNIX
   >variants that run on VAX.  It was changed when VAX C shipped.

Well, VAX/VMS has a Calling Standard.  It isn't an ABI attached to the 
hardware.  And the Calling Standard was not "changed" for VAX C.  Might have 
been extended, but always upwards compatible.

   >Alpha has a calling standard.  VMS obeys it.  I'm fairly sure
   >OSF-1/digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX obeys it.  I'm not so sure about
   >Cray OS or any other OS.

The OpenVMS Alpha Calling Standard and the Tru64 Calling Standard are not 
the same.  Close.  Written by the same folks.  But not quite the same.

   >IA64 has a calling standard.  VMS has trouble with it and I'm not
   >sure the exact state, but VMS does follow a standard and all native
   >languages for VMS on IA64 can be mixed.

Not sure what you mean.  The OpenVMS I64 Calling Standard works just fine. 
All the compilers follow it.  The OS follows it.  Perhaps you are confusing 
it with the Intel Runtime Conventions (their equivalent of a Calling 
Standard that their compilers follow).  We started with the Intel 
conventions but then extended/integrated it into the traditional OpenVMS 
Calling Standard to allow such things as uplevel references, bound procedure 
values, translated code, etc.

There is an appendix in the Calling Standard doc that highlights the 
differences between the Intel written conventions and what we eventually 
adopted for the Calling Standard.

John (former member of the Calling Standard committee)