[Info-vax] Hanging processes

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2015-03-02 15:50:34 +0000, Tom Adams said:

> On Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 5:49:51 PM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>> On 2015-02-25 20:58:32 +0000, Tom Adams said:
>> 
>>> I enabled QUESTCODE on our /WARN switch and did not find any errors,
>>> perhaps because we already had CHECK enabled.
>> 
>> Did you also switch off VAX C compatibility mode?
> 
> No, what are the implications on a system that was orignally developed 
> and deployed on a VAX?  I don't want to change the behavior of the 
> executables.
> I could make the change for new/revised modules, but don't know if they 
> would play well with the old modules.

Details on the differences between VAX C and DEC C on OpenVMS VAX are 
in the C for OpenVMS VAX documentation, as was previously cited.  
Specifically and confusingly only in the DEC C for VAX documentation 
too, as this C language migration entirely predates Alpha.

As for the general programming implications of K&R-style coding, that 
went out of favor about a quarter-century ago with the arrival of ANSI 
C (C89), so I'd suggest acquiring some of the available books on modern 
C coding practices and tools, and on coding for C99 and C11.  OpenVMS 
has partial C99 support, and no C11, and hopefully VSI addresses some 
of that.   Re-reading the C manuals and the list of routines, and 
reading a few more recent books really helped my own coding.  I'm 
working my way through yet another C book now, even though I've been 
using C on VMS since the initial DEC beta test of VAX C.  Times and 
languages and tools change, after all.

> Heck, we suppress a handful of warnings because of coding practices in 
> X/MOTIF includes.  Did HP or any of the owners of VMS every bring those 
> up to your high standards?

I've my own C code to work on and to maintain and to support, as well 
as some of that of my customers.   How I do that work is what I've 
described.

As for my high standards and entirely pragmatically, you're the one 
that has these strange hanging processes, that's posted code that's 
lacking integrated logging and with unfortunately incomplete run-time 
error checking, and that's asked for help with this pre-ANSI C code.

What you do with the suggestions I've made for solidifying the code and 
for identifying the triggers for the hangs, with the potential and 
available use of C89, C99 and C11 constructs and practices, and with 
this and other K&R-vintage C code you're working with, is entirely up 
to you and to your employer.



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