[Info-vax] Some VMS/x86 perf test data from WASD maintainer.

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 5/2/2023 9:30 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> On 2023-04-29, Robert A. Brooks <FIRST.LAST at vmssoftware.com> wrote:
>> Any performance numbers for VMS on X86_64 are not *that* interesting until it's
>> built with native optimizing compilers.
>>
>> Native compilers are becoming available, but the build process will take some
>> time to convert to a native build.
>>
>> I do not think (but am not sure) that V9.2-2 (scheduled for near the end of the
>> year) would be a native build.  Early builds of that version are being done
>> with cross compilers.
> 
> I am surprised at that.
> 
> I don't know about anyone else, but I don't really consider this to be even
> an early production release until it has been built with native compilers.

I am not so surprised over the prioritization.

* Customers desperately need all sorts of applications
   for VMS x86-64 to start their migration projects
* the customer impact of VMS being build without optimization
   is probably small:
     - most customers are just starting up migration projects
       and are focused on functionality not performance
     - non-optimizing on recent & decent x86-64 HW are
       probably in most cases as fast as optimizing on
       the 10-25 year old HW being used today in production
* if it turns out that there are bugs in the compilers, then
   it is better that it causes an application to crash than
   it causes VMS to crash

Of course it need to eventually happen. But getting Cobol/Pascal/Basic
out, getting Java out, getting the "platform type" products out,
maybe support at least one physical server for those with that need
etc. seems more urgent.

Arne