[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Bob Eager]

On Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:16:14 +0000, Robin Fairbairns wrote:

> Bob Eager <rde42 at spamcop.net> writes:
>>On Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:24:08 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:
>>
>>>> Because C came from the Unix environment and putting the Macro
>>>> Pre-preocessor in the compiler would have violated the paradigm Unix
>>>> was based on.  Thus, "cpp" and, of course, M4 as separate programs.
>>
>>An unrelated comment: m4 must be the worst macro processor I have ever
>>seen. I might be a bit biased; I've used the same one since 1971! It's
>>been ported to everytung; I did the VMS version sometime in the 1980s.
>>
>>  http://www.ml1.org.uk
> 
> my first task in my first job for the university was to clean up and
> debug the titan implementation of ml/1.  (i learned it on the pdp-7,
> when i was still an undergraduate; i've only ever used it on pdp-7 and
> titan.)

Good God! Probably the earliest ML/I user around; pre-dates me (1971). 
Now that Peter Brown has gone.

> ml/1 is good and powerful, but it tends to descend into obscurity if you
> try to be clever.  just like tex (the system for which i've written more
> macros than any other, and indeed, pretty much any macro generation
> scheme that allows you to be clever at all.

It was greatly improved when the closing delimiter for operation macros 
was changed from semicolon to newline. And it has simple string variables 
now.

> i'm amused that ml/1 is still available.  if i can ever get the other
> side of my accumulated deadlines, i might try playing with it again.

Yes, it must be one of the oldest programs still in use...!

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