[Info-vax] C99 stuff (Re: The Road to V9.0)

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2019-06-07 13:54:19 +0000, Bob Gezelter said:

> Admittedly without proof, I suspect that many ISVs and end-users will 
> discover that the lack of native C/C++ is an impediment. 
> Direction/guidance in this regard would likely be welcomed.

VSI needs at least a C cross-compiler and preferably a native compiler 
to build OpenVMS itself, and many of its layered products.

Off the top, I don't recall how much C++ code was used in OpenVMS and 
in layered products.  At least some C++ usage would not be a surprise.  
VSI would already have this audit.

As for the release of the native compiler itself, there are a bunch of 
customers and ISVs dependent on the C++ compiler.

Given what Clair is referencing is preparation for the lowercase-a 
alpha release V9.0 and if past history here from V8.0 and the previous 
port is any guide, V9.0 going to be somewhat rough around the edges.

>From very direct experience here, the whole cross-compilation and 
cross-linking approach is rather-less-than-fun to use.

Contending with #ifdef and conditional code is a fairly common project 
in the sources and in the builds, whether for the architecture that the 
(cross-)compiler was running on, and for the target architecture, and 
for the builds.

Call back when the beta release V9.1 becomes available, and when the 
major native compilers are at least ready to be more widely tested.

Between now and the V9.1 beta release, there's a whole lot of work 
around creating and testing the native tools, and then of incrementally 
expunging the cross-compilers and related references from the builds.

The less-common layered products and the less-commonly-used compilers 
probably won't be available until around V9.2, or maybe somewhat later.

VSI will have some work around compilers or cross-compilation or around 
re-writing some code due to compilers that might not exist, or might 
not exist yet.

This given a hunk of the operating system—the security components known 
as ACME—is written in Ada, for instance.

>From first boot on Itanium to V8.2 was ~two years.



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