[Info-vax] VMS port to x86

[John Reagan]

>"Fritz Wuehler"  wrote in message 
>news:688da0947b8b8deb5e49baab8907fe43 at msgid.frell.theremailer.net...

>>"John Reagan" <johnrreagan at earthlink.net> wrote:

>> However, for some reason, the VMS customer base uses other languages like
>> COBOL, Fortran, BASIC, Pascal, and even Ada.  Don't forget them.

>Yes but those other languages are all available for x86. gcc already
>supports many platforms, can it be that difficult to generate VAX ABI calls
>given the x86 code generation itself is already there?

Most of the VMS compilers have lots of extensions beyond the 
industry-substandard.  For instance, OpenVMS Pascal is way beyond what you'd 
get from the gcc-based Pascal (I have that installed on my Linux box).  The 
ability in BASIC, COBOL, etc. to build OpenVMS descriptors wouldn't be found 
in any other variant for x86.  It isn't gcc that I'd be worried about, it is 
the random combination of frontends you'd have to enhance.