[Info-vax] Better languages than BASIC

[John Reagan]

On 1/12/2024 4:51 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> 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!)
Beats me, ask the people who want to write those business applications.
I just make the "hammers", I don't know if you'll use it to build a
house or break a window.

> 
> 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 don't understand your use of "native"?  All of the compilers
generate real instructions and are not interpreted.  Did you
forgot to say OO?

> 
> 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.
> 
Implementing an OO model is quite involved.  The OO Pascal
addendum to the standard was limited (no multiple inheritance,
just "mixins") but would still be a beast to implement fully.

It isn't something we can hack over a weekend.  People who want
such features will need to write that on the back of a large
stack of $100 bills and send that to VSI.

> Arne
> 
>