thomas@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Steven Thomas) (02/05/88)
We recently (last week) purchased c++ for our vms system from Oasys in Cambridge, MA. In our initial review we've found that the Oasys system patches the executable after c++ preprocessor, the c compiler and the linker have all run. We called them and asked why it was necessary to patch the executable, and they stated that the implementation of constructors and destructors require this patch. We still remain unconvinced. So several questions arise ... 1) Can anyone explain why the executable image should need to be patched after creation by the linker? 2) Can anyone tell us in general about Oasys? What we've seen so far is this patch nonsense and talked with some rather rude support people. Is this company usually rude, quick, cheap and dirty or is this just the impression we've gotten? 3) Are there other versions of c++ available for vms that we should look at? (we can return Oasys's stuff within 30 days) If anyone else is using c++ on vms could you tell us what you're using and your impressions of it. Thanks in advance, Steve Thomas thomas@osu-cis
jss@hector.UUCP (Jerry Schwarz) (02/07/88)
In article <6079@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> thomas@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Steven Thomas) writes: > >We recently (last week) purchased c++ for our vms system from Oasys in >Cambridge, MA. In our initial review we've found that the Oasys system patches >the executable after c++ preprocessor, the c compiler and the linker have all >run. We called them and asked why it was necessary to patch the executable, >and they stated that the implementation of constructors and destructors require >this patch. We still remain unconvinced. So several questions arise ... > I'm not sure what you are concerned about. All cfront based C++ compilers that I am aware of either do a patch after the link step or do the link step twice. >1) Can anyone explain why the executable image should need to be patched after > creation by the linker? Oasys' explanation is correct. A top level (file scope) declaration of an object with a constructor requires the constructor to be called at program start up. Cfront arranges for source files containing such declarations to also contain a function, with a distinctive name, that calls the constructors. The patching is arranging for the initialization code to locate all these socalled STI functions. Finding all the STI functions must be done after linking to cover the cases where STI functions occur in object files brought in from libraries. Jerry Schwarz Bell Labs P.S. I raise my usual objection to referring to the cfront phase of C++ compilers as a preprocessor step. I haven't stated in this newsgroup in a few months, so for those who haven't seen it before: Cfront is not a preprocessor because if there is an error message during the compilation of the generated C, we know without further investigation that it is a bug in cfront, in the C compiler or in the way they are put together. It is completely analogous to an message from the assembler during an ordinary C compilation.
chip@ateng.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg) (02/12/88)
In article <6079@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> thomas@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Steven Thomas) writes: > >We recently (last week) purchased c++ for our vms system from Oasys in >Cambridge, MA. In our initial review we've found that the Oasys system patches >the executable after c++ preprocessor, the c compiler and the linker have all >run. ... Well, it's not available for VMS; but Guidelines C++ for MS-DOS does _not_ patch the executable. It does some magic with normal C identifiers and manages to execute all global constructors with only one link pass and no patching. So it's possible to avoid post-linking; but I don't know how they do it. -- Chip Salzenberg UUCP: "{codas,uunet}!ateng!chip" A T Engineering My employer's opinions are a trade secret. "Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't."
mm06@bunny.UUCP (Michael Murphy) (08/05/88)
THESIS: The AT&T C++ translator emits code that contains very
l o n g external identifiers. The 1.2.1 libC.a contains some
identifiers 33 characters in length.
ANTITHESIS: The VMS linker has a 31 character limit on the length
of PSECT names. VAX C translates extern identifiers into PSECTS.
SYNTHESIS: ??
Has anybody ported the AT&T translator to VMS (who would be
willing to share their secrets?). Are there any commercial C++
implementations for VMS (not necessarily based on the AT&T
translator?). Thank you all very much.
--
mike murphy mm06@gte.com {harvard,vaxine}!bunny!mm06
gte labs, waltham, mamark@cs.man.ac.uk (Mark van Harmelen) (11/07/90)
Can anyone give me names of C++ compilers and debuggers to run on VAX stations under VMS, preferably with your experiences of using any of these products? Price information for commercial sites is also welcome. I will post a summary of answers if requested, and forward any useful info to our erstwhile C++ product/book list compiler. Thanks, Mark van Harmelen.
mark@cs.man.ac.uk (Mark van Harmelen) (11/16/90)
======================================================================
C++ compilers for VMS: Survey result posted in response to requests
======================================================================
Thanks to all the people who contributed to this.
mark
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Glockenspiel
One negative recommendation for the Glockenspiel compiler (reasons not
stated). Perhaps interested parties may like to start a thread on what
this compiler does and does not do, rather than accept my second hand
information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Oregon Software
VMS compiler producing object code, switch slectable between C++, ANSI
C and K&R C.
Prices for VMS in range 3 to 5 thousand dollars US.
No one said that they love/hate this compiler. In fact there seemed to
be little general use of C++ on VMS, if anything most people saying
that they were going to use it...
Didn't state if it supports 2.0
Oregon Software, Inc.
6915 S.W. Macadam Ave.
Suite 200
Portland, OR 97219
503-245-2202 FAX: 503-245-8449
..!uunet!oresoft!support or support@oresoft.uu.net
The name of the UK distributor is:
Real Time Products
Canterbury House
Newhall Street
Birmingham B3 1LH UK
Tel: 021.236.8070
Fax: 021.236.6598
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GNU Stuff <--- give the the GNU folks a round of
applause. Better still send them a
donation or buy a tape
> The GNU compiler (C++, C, and assember == g++, gcc, gas
> respectively) will run under VMS and supports the VAX.
> It's all free, source available via FTP from prep.ai.mit.edu.
well I found I real live user of g++ only one floor away from where I
originally typed in my enqiry via comp.lang.c++. Amazing what one can
find out with technology these days. He is running g++, no complaints
but "it falls over on some multiple inheritance, in the same places as
other compilers do". Isn't running gdb or any debugger at all due to
some decompression/mangling problems when getting the source.
But he seems happy so far.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT&T ?
Does cfront compile under VMS? No-one said anything about this.
=============================================================================
Well that's the end of the survey. I'm off on holiday, so no
correspondence will be forthcoming from me on these topics, at least for
a while. Thanks again to respondents.
mark.cdb@midas.WR.TEK.COM (Christopher David Browne) (11/17/90)
In article <1919@m1.cs.man.ac.uk> mark@cs.man.ac.uk (Mark van Harmelen) writes: >====================================================================== >C++ compilers for VMS: Survey result posted in response to requests >====================================================================== > >Thanks to all the people who contributed to this. >mark > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >Glockenspiel > >One negative recommendation for the Glockenspiel compiler (reasons not >stated). Perhaps interested parties may like to start a thread on what >this compiler does and does not do, rather than accept my second hand >information. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- I sent a negative recommendation for the Glockenspiel compiler on VMS. The reasons I stated were: 1: Very poor to non existent documentation for VMS. Most documentation is for DOS or OS/2. 2: You cannot link to a shared library that contains print statements because during runtime it will core dump. This is a known bug that is not documented. I called up Image Soft who we bought the compiler from 4 months ago and got the run around for a couple of months until they finaly told me that it was a known bug. I was told that Image Soft has no VMS machines to test new releases. Glockenspiel stated that they had a fix in their new release and would send it to me right away. That was almost 3 months ago. I did receive a tape a week ago but on tring to install it on our machine found that it was empty. Maybe it had something on it when it left Glockenspiel I have no way of knowing. I have called Image Soft every day this week and they say they will call back in five minutes. Guess what, it must be a different five minutes than I know about. 3: I have not gotten that far. I have been stuck on 1 and 2 for 4 months.