[Info-vax] Userland programming languages on VMS.

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 1/31/22 14:43, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2022-01-31, Bill Gunshannon <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 1/31/22 09:02, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> On 2022-01-31, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I would run Solaris on SPARC and I do run VMS on Alpha
>>>> and keep Linux on x86-64. Are there any benefits
>>>> from running Linux on a less common platform?
>>>>
>>>
>>> One of the reasons Linux has taken off is that you can run it on
>>> pretty much every single thing that is physically capable of hosting
>>> it in terms of CPU power and memory/other resources.
>>>
>>> This includes large mainframes all the way down to tiny embedded boards
>>> running on some custom hardware/architecture.
>>>
>>
>> The same is probably true of just about any OS.  All it takes is
>> access to the source and a desire by someone to do the work.  Why
>> do you think I would still like to see the source to RSTS released
>> into the wild.  RSX which was very PDP-11 specific now has a version
>> running on later Z80 family processors.  I have it running here at
>> my home and it works quite well.
>>
> 
> The OS needs to be designed to be portable and also with the architecture
> specific features abstracted away into a lower level as much as possible
> to stand any chance of that being true.

You must have missed it.  RSX was not designed to be portable but
someone was able to build a clone on the higher end Z80 family.

> 
> Linux was designed for that (and so were OS options such as the various
> dedicated embedded operating systems). Windows NT was also originally
> designed somewhat with portability in mind as well.

Linux was designed (if you can even say that) to imitate Unix,
nothing more.  I seriously doubt Linus Torvald had any idea
that it would be running on anything other than Intel at the
time he was writing it.

> 
> The DEC operating systems however were not designed with that level
> of portability in mind due to the era in which they were designed.

And yet we have a clone of RSX and if I had the sources available
to me we would also have a clone of RSTS.  And, if anyone was really
interested, I expect RT-11 could be cloned in a very short time, too.

Seriously, it's not rocket science.  Unless one deliberately made the
hardware obscure and obtuse the OS is really going to be something
any CS grad could deal with.  The only thing protecting proprietary
OSes is obscurity and a total lack of interest.

bill