Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!paperboy!meissner From: meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner) Newsgroups: comp.std.c Subject: Re: C on IBM machines (was: Proposed Enhancement to select/case) Message-ID: Date: 21 Sep 90 14:32:36 GMT References: <1990Aug30.164610.3519@zoo.toronto.edu> <13714@smoke.BRL.MIL> <13719@smoke.BRL.MIL> <1762 <268@cadlab.sublink.ORG> Sender: news@OSF.ORG Organization: Open Software Foundation Lines: 49 In-reply-to: staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG's message of 12 Sep 90 20:43:08 GMT In article <268@cadlab.sublink.ORG> staff@cadlab.sublink.ORG (Alex Martelli) writes: | meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner) writes: | >Reality check time -- as far as I know, there is no C compiler for the | >AS/400. It would be an interesting experience, in a sick sort of way | >from what little I've heard about the internals of this beast. Also, | | I don't know either, but I do know that IBM is *COMMITTED* to release | a C for AS/400, as well as a Fortran - both of these languages are a | crucial part of the Common Programming Interface (CPI) of Standard | Application Architecture (SAA), and AS/400 is "the heart of SAA" | (with OS/2 being the feet and VM and MVS together the head, I guess). Ok, it looks like I have not kept up with the annoucements. Also, I think I was originally thinking of the Sytem 38 rather than the AS/400. From what little I know of the System 38, I think it would be a C hostile machine (it has a single level memory, pointers much bigger than integers, EBCDIC, etc.). I assumed that the AS/400 would have the same 'features', since it's being touted as the System 38 replacement. However, what little I read of the trades, indicates that SAA is more of a promise than a complete story. Some pieces are there, and some aren't..... | >up until last year or so, C had real little penetration in the 370 | >market placem, except on Amdahl's version of unix. | | Little but sometimes crucial, as in SPSS (Statistical Package for the | Social Sciences - IBM wouldn't sell many new 370-like beasts to | Universities without the humanity depts. plugging for them because | of it...), the REXX-Compiler for VM by IBM itself, the prototype | dictation-driven 'voice typewriter' by Jelinek et al in Yorktown, | etc. That's not really the point though - the point is, rather, | that if you have a beautiful portable C application, and relish the | thought of getting the beeg moola application SW on mainframes goes | for, you'd BETTER think about problems related to portability to | non-ASCII machines. What equivalent economic incentive is there to | push you to worry about portability to one's complement machines? Actually, I tend to think that it is absurd to think about getting a huge payback from new mainframe software these days. Yes, in the olden days of yore, software licenses went for quite a bit of change, but with the advent of relatively cheap PC software, it's having an effect of driving prices down. -- Michael Meissner email: meissner@osf.org phone: 617-621-8861 Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142 Do apple growers tell their kids money doesn't grow on bushes?