[Info-vax] PL/I (Re: VMS Software needs to port VAX DIBOL to OpenVMS X86 platform)

[John Reagan]

On Monday, December 28, 2020 at 8:24:32 PM UTC-5, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 12/28/20 6:52 PM, Craig A. Berry wrote: 
> > 
> > On 12/26/20 6:59 PM, Rich Alderson wrote: 
> >> "Craig A. Berry" <craig... at nospam.mac.com> writes: 
> >> 
> >>> On 12/26/20 9:43 AM, Simon Clubley wrote: 
> >>>> On 2020-12-26, Craig A. Berry <craig... at nospam.mac.com> wrote: 
> >> 
> >>>>> On 12/26/20 9:21 AM, Simon Clubley wrote: 
> >>>>>> On 2020-12-26, Arne Vajhøj <ar... at vajhoej.dk> wrote: 
> >>>>>>> On 12/26/2020 6:16 AM, Simon Clubley wrote: 
> >> 
> >>>>>>>> Is anyone still using PL/I BTW ? 
> >> 
> >>>>>>>> I thought DEC sold off the PL/I compiler and that the person it was 
> >>>>>>>> sold to retired and either sold off or wound down his business. 
> >> 
> >>>>>>> Kednos & Tim Sneddon? 
> >> 
> >>>>>>> Arne 
> >> 
> >>>>>> Yes, that was him. Thanks for reminding me of the name. 
> >> 
> >>>>> It was Tom Linden, not Tim, who owned Kednos. I think Tim worked 
> >>>>> there 
> >>>>> at some point and kednos.com now redirects to Tim's 
> >>>>> endlesssoftware.com. 
> >> 
> >>>> Thanks for the correction. It's not a language I have ever used and 
> >>>> I have long forgotten any detailed knowledge of who PL/I was sold to. 
> >> 
> >>> I've never used it either and I know nothing about current ownership or 
> >>> plans. I just remember that it came up in discussions of what gets lost 
> >>> in a platform port. 
> >> 
> >>> There is a now-moribund PL/I project for the GCC back end: 
> >> 
> >>> <http://pl1gcc.sourceforge.net> 
> >> 
> >>> and there is a proprietary compiler that runs on Linux: 
> >> 
> >>> <http://www.iron-spring.com/about.html> 
> >> 
> >>> Both of these emulate IBM PL/I and would likely require a monumental 
> >>> effort to replace DEC PL/I. 
> >> 
> >> As I remember the book on the VAX (VMS) port, the goal was very much to 
> >> "emulate" (implement) IBM PL/I, so I doubt that there would be that much 
> >> effort for any implementation with the same goal... 
> > 
> > Interesting. I would have expected a lot of DECisms similar to the 
> > keywords in BASIC for dealing with RMS files and such. But even if the 
> > language syntax is identical with no extensions, there would still be a 
> > lot of work to make one of these compilers replace the DEC/Kednos PL/I 
> > compiler unless the answer to all of the following questions is "no." 
> > Do you want command-line compatibility? 
> > Do you want to support the VMS calling standard? 
> > Do you want to debug the code with the VMS debugger? 
> > Do you want compatible messages, warnings, and errors? 
> > 
> > ...and possibly others I'm not thinking of. 
> > 
> > The folks making money from PL/I on OpenVMS Alpha did not see a business 
> > case for porting it to Itanium almost 20 years ago, so I'm not sure what 
> > the business case would be now for getting the same or equivalent 
> > compiler up and running on OpenVMS x86. That said, I'd be delighted to 
> > see an offbeat and mostly-forgotten language brought back to life by its 
> > users, if any such folks are still out there.
> Anyone thought about approaching Tom Linden and seeing if he 
> could be convinced to release it as Open Source? Even with 
> the GPL it would be better than nothing. 
> 
> bill
That's going to be hard.  Tom passed away in 2019

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/pacific-grove-ca/thomas-linden-8256925