[Info-vax] Ada on VMS, was: Re: Free Pascal for VMS ?

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2018-05-11 12:24:03 +0000, Simon Clubley said:

> On 2018-05-10, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2018-05-10 17:33:54 +0000, Simon Clubley said:
>>> 
>>> Ada was third party, but I thought AdaCore had terminated support for 
>>> GNAT on VMS. Is that wrong or has the situation changed there ?
>> 
>> SMOP.   This once the x86-64 port and the llvm bits are available, and 
>> as you've already seen...
>> 
>> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.ada/umrsksm3nEs/Z4Itf7c5BgAJ
> 
> Since you are either reading comp.lang.ada or doing keyword searches 
> you should also be aware then that the idea of a production quality 
> LLVM based Ada compiler currently has major doubts about whether it 
> will ever actually happen.

That's more about whether the folks that want the compilers and tools 
are willing to pay.  So far, there clearly haven't been more than a few 
folks interested, and those only scratching their own itches.

> Additional levels of doubt on top of that apply to whether something 
> usable will ever run on VMS.

If there's enough money, there'll be a compiler.

Given the apparent trends for Ada and Pascal, I'd suggest Rust or Go or 
another language.

Unless you're maintaining an installed base of Ada or Pascal, and then 
you're going to be looking at options and alternatives.  Or porting to 
a platform with the necessary compiler or tool.   Or paying for a 
compiler for the preferred platform, as that's probably a smaller 
investment than is porting, for non-trivial piles of code.  q.v. 
Macro32 compiler.

So.... SMOP.  Not so simple matter of funding it.   Or go get DragonEgg 
and the rest going and then port to LLVM on OpenVMS yourself, or use 
some alternative approach on OpenVMS, and see if you can find a market 
of folks that are fond of Ada or Pascal and that want OpenVMS.



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