[Info-vax] Zig (was: Re: Clang (was: Re: What does VMS get used for, these days?))

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 12/26/2022 2:49 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> Zig: https://ziglang.org/#Small-simple-language
> 
> Here's a different approach to porting: the Zig compiler bootstraps 
> using WebAssembly. Which means getting WebAssembly going. Which then 
> means getting the interpreter going first, or getting a modern web 
> browser going.
> 
> Yeah, it's from a podcast: 
> https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bootstrapping-a-compiler-via-wasm-with-loris-cro/id1602572955?i=1000591301501
> 
> For an intro to WebAssembly: 
> https://sensepost.com/blog/2018/introduction-to-webassembly/
> 
> Also:
> https://blog.battlefy.com/zig-and-webassembly-are-a-match-made-in-heaven
> https://dev.to/sleibrock/webassembly-with-zig-part-1-4onm
> https://www.jaybosamiya.com/publications/2022/usenix/provably-safe-sandboxing-wasm.pdf
> https://blog.cloudflare.com/workerd-open-source-workers-runtime/
> https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/#Introduction
> https://kristoff.it/blog/maintain-it-with-zig/
> 
> And for completeness: https://github.com/wasm3/wasm3 (and presently, the 
> latest fix to that was for Zig support.)
> 
> Mostly unrelated to the above, but using Zig, and probably not a path 
> for the OpenVMS port to AArch64 support: 
> https://github.com/stakach/uefi-bootstrap

I am not sure there is much point for VMS.

Rust and Go got some traction. And when VSI have
their existing languages running on VMS x86-64 in
reasonable current versions, then adding them could
make sense.

Zig and Hare are so new and their future so uncertain that
for now I don't think it make any sense for a company
of VSI size to even think about then.

WebAssembly is certainly an important technology, but
I don't think it is important for the VMS market.

Arne