[Info-vax] VAX VMS going forward

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2020-07-28 14:42:33 +0000, John Reagan said:

> We must be working with different compilers.  There is no qualifier or 
> setting to tell the compilers to generate 32-bit code or 64-bit code.  
> The code is the same.  You can ask the linker to place it different 
> with LINK/SEG=CODE=P2 or =P0.  You can even copy code from P0 into P2 
> on Alpha, Itanium, and x86.  You might have to readjust some 
> relocations but the instructions are perfectly fine in either area (the 
> exception is the Itanium C++ compiler).

32-bit or 64-bit pointer selection in various compilers, BASIC was 
still 32-bit when last I checked, and the thicket of APIs on OpenVMS is 
a confusing mash-up of 32-bit and 64-bit and mixed-bit calls.

And we need not discuss the Intel C++ compiler on OpenVMS I64.

You may well be entirely correct about the bulk of the compiler code 
generation, but that does not make the OpenVMS programming environment 
anything less than offal.

Particularly the 64-bit programming environment.

Having used other platforms, the OpenVMS programming environment and 
particularly the 64-bit environment is most charitably described as 
Byzantine.

Works well enough for and clearly and necessarily tuned for existing 
apps. Less than fun for new app work. And arcane for new-to-OpenVMS 
developers.





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