[Info-vax] VSI Python 3.8.2 port, with a OpenVMS Shark Logo...

[Craig A. Berry]

On 11/21/20 1:18 PM, Chris Townley wrote:
> On 21/11/2020 18:42, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>>
>> VSI has announced a recent Python port for OpenVMS. (Python 3.9 and 
>> 3.8.6 are the most current.)
>>
>> https://twitter.com/VMSSoftware/status/1329794043556098051
>>
>> As for the new or new-to-me OpenVMS logo shown, there's a /fin joke 
>> here somewhere, I just know it.
>>
>>
>  From first look this is I64 only?
> 
> Is this the future of Alpha here?

Um, the future of Alpha has been pretty clear since it was discontinued
a couple of decades ago. VSI does still produce Alpha kits for many (but
not all) of its open source ports, though often shortly after the
Itanium kits appear.

In the particular case of Python 3.x, however, I'm not sure if anyone
has yet ported the requisite libffi library to Alpha.  Last I heard,
doing so required knowledge of Alpha assembler, DWARF, Alpha function
signature details, and the OpenVMS calling standard.  Possibly other
things I'm forgetting.  People with all the necessary skills probably
have other things to do. Have you opened a ticket with VSI to ask for
support?