[Info-vax] The future of Ada on VMS

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 5/21/2018 4:06 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2018-05-21, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>> I do not doubt that John could create an Ada compiler, but
>> every indication is that he will be working on other stuff.
> 
> Creating an Ada compiler from scratch is a massive job. A number
> of people (who know way more about what is involved than I do)
> have looked at this possibility in various forms and have come
> to the same conclusion.

Ada at least 95 and newer is a big language.

But there are other big languages. PL/I, C++, Scala comes to mind.

>> So it will be VSI management talking to ACT management.
>>
>> Or talk to the great guys that made GNAT work on VMS I64
>> about an x86-64 version. See post some time ago!
> 
> That's not really a meaningful comparison unfortunately.
> 
> The code for Itanium already existed in the code base he used and
> it was mostly a matter of learning how to use an existing GNAT Pro
> compiler for Alpha VMS to build an Itanium compiler.
> 
> All the necessary bits for x86-64 on VMS would need to be added
> to the code base before such an attempt could be made for x86-64.

General x86-64 backend is available.

And how much VMS x86-64 backend is needed?

> This would mean however that VSI would be maintaining GCC for
> Ada only and maintaining LLVM for all the other compilers.

I believe GCC can use LLVM as backend. Not sure about Ada (GNAT),
but maybe.

Arne