[Info-vax] Learning VMS application programming

[Paul Sture]

On 2014-09-07, David Froble <davef at tsoft-inc.com> wrote:
> Paul Sture wrote:
>
>> Since I just stated in another post that Fortan was the first HLL language
>> available for VAX/VMS, was Bliss available to the public before it
>> appeared on the Freeware CDs?
>
> Bliss was available on the PDP-11s.  But as with other compilers, you 
> had to purchase it.  Free came later.

BTW I consulted the "VMS at 20" PDF and according to that both COBOL and
BASIC PLUS 2 were available in 1978 for VMS V1.0.  I'm reasonably sure
that that COBOL was a compatibility mode version, and generated
compatibility mode code; it certainly wasn't mentioned as a viable route
for us an alternative to FORTRAN.  The PDF VMS V1.0 entry differentiates
Macro and FORTRAN from the above compilers with the prefix "VAX-11" thus:

"VAX-11 MACRO generates native code" and "VAX-11 FORTRAN IV-PLUS"

By 1981 the COBOL we had was still compatibility mode but produced VAX
native code, IIRC.  Native COBOL came around VMS V3 for me, in 1982/3.

-- 
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