[Info-vax] The future of Ada on VMS

[Dave Froble]

On 5/21/2018 6:17 PM, clair.grant at vmssoftware.com wrote:
> On Monday, May 21, 2018 at 4:06:50 PM UTC-4, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2018-05-21, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>> On 5/21/2018 1:38 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>>> But once again, you're predicting without any idea of what might happen.
>>>>    You say there will not be an Ada compiler.  How do you know that?
>>>> Perhaps there is not one now, or any announced plans for one.  But VSI
>>>> will look at what their customers are asking for, and if there is demand
>>>> and good business sense to do so, do you doubt John's ability to produce
>>>> a new up to date Ada compiler?
>>>
>>> Ada is a bit more uncertain.
>>>
>>
>> Try a lot more uncertain (unfortunately).
>>
>>> My understanding is that VSI has not talked about migrating
>>> the extremely old DEC Ada 83 but has talked about getting ACT
>>> to port their modern Ada. But ACT has dropped VMS as a platform,
>>>
>>
>> This is my understanding as well.
>>
>> When DEC/CPQ/HP management decided to go with an external vendor
>> for Ada instead of building an Ada 95 compiler in-house, that was
>> when they lost control of the long term Ada ecosystem and became
>> dependent on that external vendor's plans.
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>> This would mean however that VSI would be maintaining GCC for
>> Ada only and maintaining LLVM for all the other compilers.
>>
>>> If I were dependent on Ada on VMS, then I would also be
>>> a bit concerned.
>>>
>>
>> Very much agreed.
>>
>> Simon.
>>
>> --
>> Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
>> Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world
>
> We are rewriting the Ada in the operating system to C/C++ so VMS
itself will not need an Ada compiler on x86. As to what x86 customers
will do, that is a definite TBD at this point. We have no, even remote,
plans to create it ourselves.
>
> Clair
>

<droll cheaky bastard>

Is that the same "no, even remote, plans for an Alpha release" ?

Sorry, couldn't resist ..

:-)

</droll cheaky bastard>