[Info-vax] VMS Software Releases Roadmap Updates

[John Reagan]

On Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 1:50:44 PM UTC-4, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> Everybody want the native compilers for VMS and they will 
> show up. It just takes some time. More time than what we 
> prefer, but life is tough. 
> 

The compiler team at VSI is a little smaller than the one back in the Alpha and Itanium era.  At one point, the compiler team at Digital had close to 100 people working on compilers, language RTLs, DECset, etc.  I don't have 100 people.

Bootstrapping an LLVM to OpenVMS x86 takes time and effort.  We also need pieces of GEM for the compilers as well.  It is a multi-step operation.  

There are several features that have been deferred until we can use the newer LLVM natively.  The LLVM 3.4.2 used for the cross-compilers has some limitations (for example, those using 'long double', real*16, etc.)

Besides the compilers themselves, there is testing, documentation, installation kits, etc to do.  Can we do it ahead of schedule?  We'll see.