[Info-vax] VMS Software needs to port VAX DIBOL to OpenVMS X86 platform

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 12/15/2020 10:47 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 12/15/20 10:35 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 12/15/2020 10:19 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 12/15/20 8:26 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 12/15/2020 8:17 AM, Chris Townley wrote:
>>>>> On 15/12/2020 13:05, Michael C wrote:
>>>>>> On Monday, December 14, 2020 at 9:39:20 PM UTC-5, Dave Froble wrote:
>>>>>>> On 12/14/2020 2:08 PM, ultr... at gmail.com wrote:
>>>>>>>> So Synergex as of now refuses to port their OpenVMS version of 
>>>>>>>> DIBOL to OpenVMS X86.
>>>>>>> Well Bob, perhaps you can acquire a copy of the DIBOL product in 
>>>>>>> order
>>>>>>> to implement it on x86 VMS?
>>>>>>>> This is a request for VMS software to port VAX DIBOL to the x86 
>>>>>>>> OpenVMS environment.
>>>>>>> This forum, as Jan-=Erik may have mentioned, is not a VSI support 
>>>>>>> venue.
>>>>>>>> I have started a project using DIBOL and need to implement it on 
>>>>>>>> the x86 platform.
>>>>>>> Use Basic ....
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> DIBOL runs circles around basic :0
>>>>>
>>>>> Wasn't Dibol based on Cobol?
>>>>
>>>> It is supposedly inspired by Cobol and Basic and Fortran.
>>>
>>> Point out one thing in a DIBOL program that even vaguely
>>> resembles COBOL (other than the last three letters of the
>>> name).
>>
>> Wikipedia claims:
>> * BCD arithmetic
> 
> Lots of languages did and do BCD Arithmetic doesn't mean they
> resemble or acquired that from COBOL.

Today most languages do have some sort of decimal type.

Back then not so many.

>> * data and procedure divisions
> 
> While the manual states there is a data and a procedure division the 
> word division is not used in source code, the start of the data area
> is  not delinieated and the separation of the two is merely the symbol
> PROC.  Again, no similarity to COBOL.

I find it very unlikely that those words was invented independently
of Cobol.

The claim was not that it used Cobol syntax but that it
was inspired by Cobol.

Arne