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

[Craig A. Berry]

On 11/23/20 1:57 AM, Jean-François Piéronne wrote:
> Le 22/11/2020 à 00:18, Craig A. Berry a écrit :
>>
>> 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?
> 
> When we do the port, Philippe Vouters and I, of libffi to OpenVMS we
> (mostly Philippe) do the port for Alpha and I64.

Good to know.  Only the IA64 port is available here:

<https://vmsfree.ouvaton.org/freen/index.php?s=libffi>

> In fact, we do the port for Python.
> 
> So you can build Python 3 on Alpha without any problem.
> 
> A few months ago I have asked if anyone is interested having a Python
> 3.10 on Alpha, no replies, as all customers who use Python on OpenVMS
> are on I64, I only ld images for I64.
> 
> All the sources, Python 3.10 and libffi and others are on
> https://foss.vmsgenerations.org/

Which points to a GitLab sign-in page.  Apparently one has to have an
account to see anything there.  Which also means nothing there will turn
up in a web search because the search engines won't be able to see
anything behind the authentication wall.

> So if you want a Python 3 on Alpha it's not very difficult to build it.
> 
> And Python 3.10 will be provided on X86-64, I have build some libraries
> without any problem, the only expected one will be libffi.
> 
> The Python 3.10 port have the same VMS extension as the 2.7 version.
> This is very important for customers who have large Python applications
> on VMS.
> 
> Currently, the only limitation is that Python 3.10 expect some modern
> CRTL so need VSI VMS version with latest CRTL patches. But I know
> someone which is investigating is it can be backported to 8.4 HP version.
> 
> 
> 
> JFP
>