[Info-vax] Better languages than BASIC

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 1/12/2024 4:20 PM, John Reagan wrote:
> - I don't see the need to add OO to VMS Pascal.  There are several other
> languages to choose from these days.  We have added a feature or two
> over the years based on customer requests (the last "big" feature was
> my addition of the SELECT/SELECTONE statements patterned after the
> BLISS equivalents).  With all the discussions around what it means to be
> a 64-bit program, perhaps I should get the compiler to be more flexible
> with its handling of 32-bit vs 64-bit descriptor forms.

Right now the goal of VSI must be to get all the existing
VMS customer to port their existing applications to VMS x86-64.

But what is the plan when that is done?

(not urgent because it will take years)

What will new business applications for VMS be written in?

(we are hoping for such!)

Obviously all the non-native languages (Java, Python, PHP etc. - I
still recommend Groovy!) are going to grab the majority.

But for those wanting native code (and quite some will due
to need to link with old legacy code) will C++ really be
the only choice?

I would hate to see that.

I would love to see VMS Pascal and VMS Basic being beefed up
with OO, generic and maybe a drizzle of functional.

Arne