[Info-vax] OpenVMS E9.2 Field Test Begins

[John Reagan]

On Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 6:14:26 PM UTC-4, John Dallman wrote:
> In article <t2nhb0$ub5$2... at dont-email.me>, jan-erik.... at telia.com
> (Jan-Erik Söderholm) wrote: 
> 
> > Well, also on their web site: 
> > https://vmssoftware.com/about/openvmsv9-1/.
> No native compilers yet. 
> 
> John
I missed the deadline to get the native Macro into the kit.  I've already checked it
in and it will be in the final V9.2 kit.  It seems to be functionally identical to the
cross Macro compiler

Here's an update on native compiler work-in-progress:
- BLISS compiler mostly works but has a bug due to being miscompiled by the cross BLISS compiler
  (GLOBAL BINDs in BLISS are a PITA to describe to LLVM)
- C compiler sorta works but there is something screwy in the precompiler (either an uninitialized
  variable or perhaps another victim of a bad cross compiler - triaging as I type this)
- C++ (clang) will be starting limited testing with one customer soon and then expanding to more
  as we get more things cleaned up
- Others (COBOL, Fortran, Pascal) are just waiting for us to find the cycles
- BASIC is still waiting on an enhancement to our G2L converter.  BASIC's MAP statement uses
  COMMON blocks in a "unique" way that the converter was not prepared for.  And the way OpenVMS
  implements common blocks is different than the presentation you see on UNIX/Linux systems.
  (I can really bore you on overlaid PSECTs on OpenVMS vs .comm directives in UNIX)