[Info-vax] How much of VMS is still in MACRO-32?

[John Reagan]

On Tuesday, June 1, 2021 at 11:27:36 AM UTC-4, Marc Van Dyck wrote:
> Stephen Hoffman formulated on Monday :
> > On 2021-05-31 03:19:39 +0000, Dave Froble said: 
> > 
> >> I'm curious. Do you have any tools that can pinpoint all references to a 
> >> particular field or argument? If not, did you attempt to produce such a 
> >> tool? 
> > 
> > A combination of compiler symbol tables and linker maps can usually spot 
> > symbol references, though pointer use can obviously bypass that. 
> > 
> > At run-time, debugger watchpoints can be useful, though that can be less than 
> > inclusive, assuming incomplete code coverage for testing. 
> > 
> > When handed similar problems for longer-term work, maybe start by creating 
> > APIs and then encapsulating the data and data access. 
> > 
> > Which is a common path toward component replacements, and can be used for 
> > platform migrations; toward app refactoring. 
> > 
> > This retrofitting and refactoring work is an investment that can require 
> > months or years to pay off, within any complex app. 
> > 
> > Writing a refactoring-focused presentation for OpenVMS apps would be an 
> > interesting project in itself.\
> Don't you do that with Source Code Analyzer, for languages that support 
> it ? 
> 
> -- 
> Marc Van Dyck
SCA can help but the Macro compiler doesn't support SCA (well, VAX Macro-32 has some support)
which is where Dave asked about searching Macro code for FOO$L_FIELD and changing the name
and opcode to some EVAX_ and FOO$Q_BIGGERFIELD combination.