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

[Simon Clubley]

On 2019-06-07, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:
> 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.
>

There appears to be some confusion here, so let me ask the question
outright:

Will the C/Macro-32/BLISS/Fortran/etc compilers for x86-64 VMS 9.0 be
x86-64 VMS hosted native compilers or will they continue to be
cross-compilers hosted elsewhere ?

I thought they would all continue to be cross-compilers for now and
I was under the impression that John is nowhere near to having native
hosted compilers ready because of the prerequisite problems of having
to get a modern C++ compiler working first.

I've also read the postings by John and Clair in this thread which both
appear to have confirmed that situation.

>
> 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.
>

Hmm. I'm used to working with cross-compilers and if the host environment
is leaking into the target environment, then perhaps things are not as
well isolated as they should be.

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

Is it still Ada ? I thought VSI had mentioned early on that code was
going to be rewritten in another language.

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

That's an interesting data point to keep in mind, thanks.

Simon.

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