[Info-vax] Modern software development for VMS, was: Re: source control and semantics (Re: Why so much Unix envy?)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2014-09-14 16:40:08 +0000, David Froble said:

> I confess, I don't understand this "modern software development" and 
> using cross compilers.  What's wrong with using a VMS system?  What's 
> wrong with directories containing source files, build files, and such?

Some folks happen to like and use IDEs, and some don't.

IDEs vary (greatly) in features and quality and performance.

And it's often an IDE that's a key factor when discussing 
cross-platform development — though not always.

Cross-architecture and cross-platform tools are fairly common.  These 
remote capabilities are the underpinnings of many Eclipse and NetBeans 
environments.   Xcode provides something similar for iOS development, 
and Visual Studio with Team Foundation Server or Xamarin, too.   Going 
remote gets around the requirements for various services and features 
on the client platform; where you can effectively treat the target 
platform as embedded.  OpenVMS isn't that far off an embedded platform 
in the way it's been packaged and sold in recent years, for that matter.

Beyond baseline application development using an IDE, VSI will very 
likely be using cross-architecture tools for the initial part of the 
x86 port, as that lets VSI use an existing and debugged platform as the 
foundation, up until VMS x64 can self-host its builds.

Not having to maintain build procedures and the rest, and getting an 
application package provided for the developer — basically allowing you 
to go from source files and source-integrated debugging (well beyond 
what typing EDIT in the VMS debugger gets you) to regular and 
debug-built images to a proper PCSI installation kit, in VMS terms — 
would be pretty handy to have, no?


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