[Info-vax] Python on VMS

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2019-01-16 12:55:24 +0000, Neil Rieck said:

> Comment-1: I have been installing run-time libraries into VAX, Alpha 
> and Itanium for 31-years and have never experienced any breakage with 
> compiled programs. Many of these systems just continue to run forever.

I have. Some of the more famous examples are Adobe Display Postscript 
support (removed), the EV6 load-locked mess (bad GEM code generation), 
OpenSSL (API and encryption changes), and callable BACKUP (changed 
itemcodes).

The changes necessary for the password hash support will be another example.

There _will_ be more of these incompatibilities, if VSI is going to 
continue bringing OpenVMS forward.

> Systems requiring a specific version of Python are just one careless 
> upgrade away from failure.

Tools and apps are tied, and always have been.  More than a few folks 
have forgotten to check in their tooling with their source code for 
instance, which means rebuilding their long-working apps gets difficult.

> Comment-2: Python is "very powerful" with interfaces into almost 
> everything including MySQL and MariaDB
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)

This is hardly surprising for folks that have been working across 
platforms.  Python, Lua, Perl and other scripting tools all feature 
database access, as well as a wealth of other routines for common 
tasks.  This is part of why at least some of us have been pointing at 
the unfortunate state of DCL as an issue on OpenVMS.   DCL is not the 
pinnacle of a CLI.  It's competitively inadequate, at best.

> Comment-3: I started in computing by learning "interpreted BASIC" on an 
> Apple2. Compiled languages (COBOL, FORTRAN, Pascal, BASIC, C, C++) on 
> minicomputers changed everything for me. I am ending my career learning 
> "interpreted Python" on udemy

The whole business changes, and the tools are changed and updated 
across the spectrum.  The compiled languages available on other 
platforms—and the available frameworks, development tools, and even the 
compilation support and diagnostics—are well past what OpenVMS offers, 
too.  And PyPy, Jython and IronPython all support JIT'ing Python code, 
so you can also be running compiled Python code.  This is the world 
that OpenVMS is competing in now.

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