[Info-vax] VMS Software Releases Roadmap Updates

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 9/27/2021 1:52 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 9/27/2021 1:04 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 9/27/2021 12:23 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>> On 9/27/2021 11:35 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 9/27/2021 11:26 AM, Ian Miller wrote:
>>>>> An updated roadmap has been announced
>>>>> https://vmssoftware.com/about/news/2021-09-27-roadmap-update/
>>>>>
>>>>> Some details on when the native compilers are going to arrive.
>>>>
>>>> Always good with an update.
>>>>
>>>> It seems like native compilers are coming out rather slow:
>>>>
>>>> April 2022 - Bliss, Macro, standard C++
>>>> May-November 2022 - Cobol, C, VMS C++
>>>> November-December 2022 - Fortran, Basic, Pascal
>>>>
>>>> And Java runtime (well compiler and runtime, but compiler does
>>>> not matter) also first available November-December 2022.
>>>
>>> Looks as if x86 will be useless, for me, for more than a year ..
>>
>> 9.2 are expected out in April and are considered production ready.
>> So only a half year.
>>
>> *IF* you are willing to cross compile your Basic code on Itanium.
> 
> At this time, NOT A CHANCE !!
> 
> But, never say "never".

:-)

>> But I fear that at least some people will question the "production
>> ready" status when native compilers are not available. That is
>> not a real issue (it is common for some types of system to
>> use cross compile), but it could very well be a perceived like
>> that.
> 
> At least for VSI and VMS, the cross compilers are a temporary tool to 
> allow them to work on x86 VMS.  as such, I'd doubt that they are as 
> rigorously tested and maintained as "production level" software.  But, 
> what do I know?

They are definitely new.

But VSI use them for their development as well (maybe not Basic but many
of the other) and I assume they got test suites to run for all
languages (including Basic).

And they use well tested frontends and well tested backend where the
only new is the combination including required glue.

I would be pretty optimistic about the quality.

Arne