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

[Bob Gezelter]

On Friday, June 7, 2019 at 3:17:20 PM UTC-4, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <efc3fbf5-8395-4bfc-960d-3ae0e7425af4 at googlegroups.com>, Bob
> Gezelter <gezelter at rlgsc.com> writes: 
> 
> > WADR, while large components of the existing user base are comprised of
> > FORTRAN, PASCAL, COBOL, and BASIC, I have found that even in
> > installations which are based on "classic" languages, there are
> > dependencies on C/C++. Often these dependencies are in the areas of
> > supporting toolchains (e.g., ZIP/UNZIP, Apache, etc.). I note John's
> > earlier posting on the question of native C++ using LLVM. 
> 
> ZIP and UNZIP are definitely something many people need.  Unless you 
> donate an x86 machine to Steven Schweda, then we'll have to build them 
> ourselves (assuming that they compile out of the box).
> 
> > 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. 
> 
> Back in the day, DEC's compilers were widely recognized as the  best, 
> and in many cases were the de-facto industry standard.  I'd like to see 
> that revived.  In particular, it would be nice if Fortran were brought 
> up to date.  Reasonable versions of Pascal, C, C++, Cobol, and Basic 
> would be nice.
> 
> A hobbyist license (free or for a reasonable fee) coupled with access to 
> patches and new versions would bring in a whole slew of folks willing 
> and able to test things, probably more than understandably careful 
> production-environment people could.
> 
> What would surprise people most if I could travel back 25 years in a 
> time machine and report from the future?  Probably two things: no free 
> access to VMS patches, and unlimited free porn.  Maybe in the former 
> case we can turn the clock back.

Phillip,

I have no personal knowledge, and will defer to Steve on the question of x86-64 access. I suspect that he has at least one Windows or Linux box. Since OpenVMS-X86-64 will run as a guest under Virtual Box (among others) one does not need dedicated hardware to work with OpenVMS-x86-64.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com