[Info-vax] VMS port to x86

[Paul Sture]

On Tue, 29 May 2012 18:55:37 -0400, John Reagan wrote:

>>"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.

That was definitely true with COBOL.  It wasn't just the DEC extensions 
either.  I recall doing very VMS-specific things with it, particularly 
when interfacing with applications written in other languages.

-- 
Paul Sture