[Info-vax] Ignorance promenade: On the nature of patching VMS

[JF Mezei]

On 13-12-13 18:15, Subcommandante XDelta wrote:

> Is it possible that certain adustments to deep levels of VMS could not
> be achieved by the issuing of a patch, but would require the complete
> recompilation of the VMS kernel image ?

It is my understanding that the owner of VMS stopped issuing "patches"
last century, with the advent of Alpha and instead provided corrected
images. (aka, a whole new .exe file, not a patch to an existing .exe to
change a few bytes)


Out of curiosity, how were patches generated ?  Did they recompile the
new image and then run some differences utility to generate patch
statements ?

Or did Hoff hand code vax instruction codes in the patch file knowing by
heart the exact displacements of where they should be deposited ?