[Info-vax] compile for VAX 8650 system

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Tuesday, 7 June 2016 21:12:51 UTC+1, IanN  wrote:
> On Tuesday, June 7, 2016 at 2:00:24 PM UTC-6, Bob Gezelter wrote:
> > On Tuesday, June 7, 2016 at 2:20:47 PM UTC-4, imnik... at gmail.com wrote:
> > > The company I work for currently has a contract to support code running on a VAX 8650 system, we need to find some way to compile Ada, c, and assembly (not sure exactly which versions, can find out if necessary) for the VAX 8650 system. We have looked into emulation, acquiring our own VAX 8650 system, and using a cross compiler, but so far we have not had any luck with any of these approaches. I am writing this to see if any of you fine folks have any suggestions as to how we might proceed.
> > 
> > imnik,
> > 
> > As has been said, any reasonable real or emulated VAX environment should suffice to run OpenVMS compiles. The devil will be in getting the details correct.
> > 
> > As has been suggested, a more detailed review of the issues would lead to clarity. If the appropriate expertise is not available in-house, getting outside help would also be a sound course of action (Disclosure: We provide consulting services.).
> > 
> > - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com
> 
> Thank you everyone for all of the replies. I do not have answers to many of your questions, and I have realized that I need to be a bit more well versed in this subject before I can really give you guys the information you need to be of help. I will look more into getting an emulator running as it seems that is a universal piece of advice common to all of you. I feel like I have a much better idea of how to proceed than I did before I made this post.

One popular reason for still using antique hardware in this kind of
setup is when the target setup includes task-specific custom hardware
(which may also imply task-specific custom drivers). Does that apply
here?

The hardware in question may be something genericish (e.g. a 
synchronous serial interface) in which case it may be that DEC
hardware and drivers are available for the 8650 and for other 
potential replacements. Or it may be that something more specific
is in the picture. Someone with relevant knowledge needs to look
into this.

Emulation of the target system isn't immediately going to help
if you can't plug the necessary interfaces etc in to the target
system. This applies whether the software in the picture is VMS
or is VAXELN or is something else.

In the case of VAXELN, emulation of the development system may be
of benefit. Development host and runtime target don't have to be
the same flavour of VAX.  You can develop on an emulated VAX and
run on the real thing.

The development host does need to be VAX/VMS (not Alpha, not
Itanic). It can probably be an emulated VAX.

If specific target hardware is involved, it doesn't entirely rule
out emulation, but it may change the size of the job at hand, e.g.
it may involve finding or developing matching hardware and software
for any new runtime setup. And depending on the environment, such a
setup  may need to be extensively tested before being accepted for
'production' use. Properly testing a realtime system can be
interesting.

Note that the earlier suggestion that the customer is using TLD
Systems Ada toolset may be inconsistent with the suggestion
that VAXELN is in this picture. ICBW.

Get some solid facts so someone with experience of this kind of
setup can help you guesstimate the size (and potential cost?) of
the task at hand. There were still VAXELN-knowledgable people 
around in some places last time I looked, but the usual IT
agencies aren't where you need to look.

Have a lot of fun.