[Info-vax] VAX Macro to C conversion

[Simon Clubley]

On 2019-07-22, VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG <VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG> wrote:
>
> So, all the other languages need the same sort of special RTL support
> that was afforded to C. ;)
>

There's two levels here:

1) RTL support for the intrinsic language features.

C is sufficiently bare-bones that it doesn't need much of a RTL
(if any) to write working C code. Compare that to the description
John posted about the Basic internals.

Much of the C language functionality is provided for in normal function
calls and these can be replaced by the user as required. This is very
different from the languages such as Basic where this functionality is
embedded within the language syntax and semantics itself.

2) RTL support while in kernel mode.

Regardless of whether you are using C, Ada, Basic, etc, if you want
to work in kernel mode, your language's RTL needs to support kernel
mode operation.

VMS provides a minimal set of commonly used C language functions for
use while in kernel mode simply to avoid you having to write them
yourself.

With Basic, the Basic RTL would require a full rewrite to support
Basic programs operating in kernel mode and that is a _far_ larger
task.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world