[Info-vax] VMS Software Q1 '23 Update

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 1/25/2023 11:40 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 1/24/2023 6:22 PM, Craig A. Berry wrote:
>> On 1/24/23 2:48 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>> Now I wonder when they will announce the unavailability of a Basic 
>>> compiler?
>>
>> It's disappeared from the roadmap and during the webinar Vadim Ilves
>> (head of R & D) said maybe this year in a tone of voice that implied
>> probably not this year. 
> 
> The PDF says:
> 
> <quote>
> Is native BASIC compiler expected in 2023? The roadmap web page does not 
> explicitly mention it.
> We expect to provide BASIC during 2023.
> </quote>
> 
> I did not listen to the webinar, so I do not know the tone it was said.

But I strongly suspect that they must have hit some
technical issues.

It is late. And there are indications that it will be the last
language to get native compilers.

Given a lot of VMS users are using Basic, then I don't think
it is being down prioritized for business reasons. That does not
make sense.

So I suspect technical issues. LLVM supports C, C++ and
Fortran out of the box, so no language problem with them.
Supposedly there exist a Delphi/FPC frontend as well, so VMS Pascal
should be doable as well even though it differs quite a bit.
VMS Cobol apparently do not cause problems. But VMS Basic
is a pretty advanced language and it is very different from
other Basic dialects so any previous LLVM work like for FBC
is probably useless.

Arne