1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. COMP.OS.VMS

  • OpenVMS system programming language

    From David Meyer@21:1/5 to All on Thu Dec 19 15:56:43 2024
    Does VSI have a preferred or official language for system programming
    for OpenVMS?

    I know system programming for VAX/VMS was done in MACRO-32 and BLISS-32,
    and at least some system programs were written in C when Alpha was
    introduced.

    VSI has the BLISS reference manual on the Legacy shelf.

    Have all the MACRO and BLISS programs been ported to C or C++, or will
    they be in the future?

    --
    David Meyer
    Takarazuka, Japan
    papa@sdf.org

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert A. Brooks@21:1/5 to David Meyer on Thu Dec 19 11:38:09 2024
    On 12/19/2024 01:56, David Meyer wrote:
    Does VSI have a preferred or official language for system programming
    for OpenVMS?

    I know system programming for VAX/VMS was done in MACRO-32 and BLISS-32,
    and at least some system programs were written in C when Alpha was introduced.

    VSI has the BLISS reference manual on the Legacy shelf.

    Have all the MACRO and BLISS programs been ported to C or C++, or will
    they be in the future?

    About 40% of the operating system is now written in C, 30% in both MACRO-21 and BLISS.

    Work was done in the mid-90's to make it easier to write kernel mode code in C; most of the MACRO-only JSB interfaces were jacketed with the ability to call them from C.

    As a result, the "Writing OpenVMS Alpha Device Drivers in C" book (Szubowicz, Sherlock)
    describes some of those changes.

    --
    -- Rob

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert A. Brooks@21:1/5 to Robert A. Brooks on Thu Dec 19 11:40:46 2024
    On 12/19/2024 11:38, Robert A. Brooks wrote:

    About 40% of the operating system is now written in C, 30% in both MACRO-21 and BLISS. ^^^^^^^^

    MACRO-32 . . .

    --
    -- Rob

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@21:1/5 to David Meyer on Thu Dec 19 19:55:26 2024
    On Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:56:43 +0900, David Meyer wrote:

    Have all the MACRO and BLISS programs been ported to C or C++, or will
    they be in the future?

    I hear there is this new language called “Java”, that is supposed to take over from C++ ...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From =?UTF-8?Q?Arne_Vajh=C3=B8j?=@21:1/5 to David Meyer on Thu Dec 19 15:20:10 2024
    On 12/19/2024 1:56 AM, David Meyer wrote:
    Does VSI have a preferred or official language for system programming
    for OpenVMS?

    I know system programming for VAX/VMS was done in MACRO-32 and BLISS-32,
    and at least some system programs were written in C when Alpha was introduced.

    VSI has the BLISS reference manual on the Legacy shelf.

    Have all the MACRO and BLISS programs been ported to C or C++, or will
    they be in the future?

    Brooks already explained what VSI actually has in the VMS code base.

    Since I am not with VSI then I can better speculate and my
    guess is that:
    - VSI would like to rewrite all the remaining Bliss and Macro
    to make maintenance easier
    - VSI does not have the money to start a systematic migration
    of all the remaining Bliss and Macro because migrating that
    many millions of lines would be too expensive (I stuffed some
    random numbers into a COCOMO style model and it said 1500
    man years!)

    If you are really asking what language you should use for
    writing VMS code interfacing closely with the OS (more close
    than just using documented LIB$ and SYS$ calls), then I will
    suggest C. C is officially supported for writing device drivers
    nowadays and I believe they have a subset of the C RTL that is
    safe to call in inner modes.

    Arne

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From David Meyer@21:1/5 to All on Fri Dec 20 15:39:29 2024
    Thanks, all.

    I'm working on a retrocomputing project on a VAX teaching myself
    BLISS-32 and was curious about the current state of the OS.

    --
    David Meyer
    Takarazuka, Japan
    papa@sdf.org

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)