[Info-vax] Userland programming languages on VMS.

[John Wallace]

On 31/01/2022 00:22, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-01-29, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
>>
>> Pascal is pretty limited but makes it hard to shoot yourself in the foot.
>> And most implementations don't use null-terminated strings which are the
>> most serious source of vulnerabilities in C code.
>> --scott
>>
> 
> I wouldn't call Pascal "limited". DEC used it to implement VAXELN...
> 
> Simon.
> 


VAXELN started life as a "Pascal-like" language system. It wasn't 
entirely the same language or toolset as used by VAX Pascal, or the same 
language as ISO Pascal.

They were close enough for a lot of purposes, but they weren't the same.

See e.g. the VAXELN Pascal Language Reference Manual at e.g.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/vaxeln/2.0/AA-EU39A-TE_VAXELN_Pascal_Language_Reference_Manual_Mar85.pdf
(other sources doubtless apply):

"VAXELN Pascal is a compatible superset of the
language defined in the International Standards
Organization document ISO DIS 7185. Any program
written in ISO-standard Pascal can be compiled by the
VAXELN Pascal compiler and executed as part of the
system.

However, VAXELN Pascal has been extended to
include data types and operations that support
concurrent programming. It is supported by a highly
optimizing compiler that generates position-
independent, native-mode code. In addition, it is the
primary implementation language of the VAXELN
toolkit itself."

Or for a twenty-page overview see e.g. the VAXELN Technical Overview at 
e.g.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/vaxeln/2.0/VAXELN_Technical_Overview_1986.pdf

There's a whole lot more to VAXELN than just ISO Pascal.

Now, where were we?