[Info-vax] [OT] Early 64-bit test build of Windows 2000 for Alpha found

[John Dallman]

In article <u48n61$pdn1$1 at dont-email.me>,
clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP (Simon Clubley) wrote:

> In fact about the only major idea he didn't bring across was the 
> use of Pillar (or something comparable) instead of C as the SIL.
> 
> We lost a major opportunity to establish a viable alternative to C 
> because of that and the security of our computing infrastructure 
> is poorer because of it.

I think it was already too late by 1988. Such an OS would have had to
have supported C and C++ for software portability. Microsoft would have
had to implement any new language, but must have wanted to get on with
Windows NT. Also, their developers already knew C/C++ and they really
weren't very security-conscious in those days.

DEC had languages of its own, like BLISS, and was more willing to use
different languages for different projects. The elaborate VAX calling
standard meant that integrating modules written in different languages
was reasonably straightforward. That was not the case with any Microsoft
environment until .NET appeared in 2003. 

John