From: arne@vajhoej.dk   
      
   On 3/26/2025 9:13 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:   
   > On 3/26/2025 8:14 AM, Dan Cross wrote:   
   >> In article ,   
   >> Arne Vajhøj   wrote:   
   >>> On 3/26/2025 1:09 AM, David Meyer wrote:   
   >>>> Is there anything in the VSI licensing that would prevent a   
   >>>> community of   
   >>>> VMS and Rust (for example) fans from developing a VMS port of a Rust   
   >>>> compiler and releasing the compiler as open source?   
   >>>   
   >>> No.   
   >>>   
   >>> VMS users can write or port all the compilers they want to. And   
   >>> they have done so in the past: old versions of GCC C and C++ ran on   
   >>> VMS VAX and VMS Alpha, old versions of Gnat Ada ran on VMS Alpha   
   >>> and VMS Itanium.   
   >>>   
   >>> The reason it is not happening is not license restrictions, but   
   >>> lack of interest (willing to do work type of interest - not   
   >>> it would be nice if somebody else did the work interest) in   
   >>> the VMS community.   
   >>>   
   >>> The specific discussion was about the LLVM compiler backend,   
   >>> that VSI use for their compilers. If VSI made that available   
   >>> (it is open source) then it would be easier for people to   
   >>> write or port new compilers using LLVM as backend.   
   >>   
   >> The official Rust compiler is an interesting case in point, as   
   >> it's already built on LLVM.  Getting it running on VMS probably   
   >> wouldn't be that hard; getting it to output code targetting VMS   
   >> is probably harder, but certainly doable.   
   >   
   > Oversimplified I believe work would be:   
   >   
   > "frontend" - should not be VMS specific, but it is written   
   > in Rust so a bootstrapping process is needed - compiler bootstrapping   
   > is a known concept, but still some work   
   >   
   > "backend" - LLVM, if VSI release their VMS LLVM changes some integration   
   > work, if not a huge porting work   
   >   
   > "library" - effort will depend on how much is directly calling the OS   
   > (meaning LIB$ or SYS$ calls on VMS) and how much it is utilizing the   
   > C RTL - I don't know that so it can be little or much work   
   >   
   > "VMS stuff" - installation script, VMS debugger support,   
   > the equivalent to the C descrip.h, starlet.h and lib$routines.h etc. -   
   > also some work (but when that work start then the goal post   
   > is in sight!)   
   >   
   > Certainly doable. It is being done all the time. Similar work has   
   > been done on VMS in the past.   
   >   
   > But still let us call it "non trivial".   
      
   But please do not let that discourage the Rust lovers in the VMS   
   community.   
      
   If you want Rust on VMS, then start a porting project!   
      
   Arne   
      
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