[Info-vax] Python on VMS

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 1/14/2019 7:25 PM, John E. Malmberg wrote:
> On 1/14/2019 12:01 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 1/14/2019 12:04 PM, Mark Berryman wrote:
>>> Out of curiosity, what is the current state of Python on VMS?
>>
>> CPython:
>> * a 2.7 port exist done by JFP. My impression is that it
>>    works very well on VMS and have some useful VMS stuff
>>    and are actively used.
>> * AFAIK there are no 3.x ports

>> Bottom line is that the CPython 2.7 port is what you
>> got.
>>
>> And as recently discussed then 2.7 is getting old.
> 
> Fully working CPython of either version requires ports of lots of open 
> source packages.  The 2.7 has a lot of them but the last time I looked, 
> several were were way behind the Linux versions.

The joy of "C portability".

:-)

> I have done some test builds of Python3, and got the GNV to run the 
> python3 build procedure up to the point it starts running tests.  The 
> first thing it needs for the tests is libffi, which I have not had time 
> to try the code that Hartmut Becker worked out for it.
> 
> But much of the functionality needs stuff that also fails when I try to 
> run gnulib tests.
> 
> https://sourceforge.net/p/gnv/wiki/Gnulib%20Assist/ documents the issues 
> that I have found and my progress on it.

Would it be fair to say that the problems for the port is
not fundamental (*nix'isms that simply can't be implemented
on VMS) but a resource problem (if there were enough VMS
enthusiasts working on those libraries then they would be
ported)?

Arne