[Info-vax] VMS port to x86

[Paul Sture]

On Fri, 25 May 2012 11:21:41 +0000, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply
wrote:

> In article
> <75540c5c-cb05-4367-8936-a605e433c434 at h10g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>,
> Neil Rieck <n.rieck at sympatico.ca> writes:
> 
>> Over the years we've watched companies like AMD reverse engineer the
>> x86 instruction set to produce a functionally similar x86 chip.
>> Likewise, companies like Compaq reverse engineered the PC (and BIOS) to
>> produce a functionally similar computer.
> 
> OK.
> 
>> In the past, big companies
>> charged big bucks for C compilers yet today every C programming course
>> instructs people to only use open-source compilers like GNU-C.
> 
> Several reasons for the change.  First, open-source stuff now exists in
> "reasonable" quality.  Cheap internet has made it possible to have such
> projects.  Second, hardware has become cheap and operating systems as
> well, led to some extent by "Wintel" stuff since one helped sell the
> other and high-volume low-margin was profitable.  So, paying, say, 2000
> for a compiler is a lot of money.  Back when the hardware cost several
> tens of thousands, the extra money for compilers was, seen as a fraction
> of the total cost, small.

If you want to pay 2000 or more for a compiler you can.  See Microsoft's 
Visual Studio prices page:

http://bit.ly/KTiYi7

OK Visual Studio is more than just a compiler, but you get the idea.



-- 
Paul Sture