[FreeVMS] Status Update ...?

[Robert Alan Byer]

For documentation, one might want to take a look at the bitsavers.org
site, specifically...

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/

(it's also a good site for older software too)
> > I know; I only think that, in a first time, we have to write a
> stable kernel on only _one_ arch. In a second time, we can add some archs.
>
> That's the plan: a portable kernel (i.e. portable C, easy assembly
> migration), written for x86 first then ported to whatever other
> architecture we want/need later in the process.
>
> > If this is only a 64-bit interface, will it still be possible to
> write something like VEST that would translate Vax and Alpha binaries
> into x86 binaries?
>
> Never heard of it, but to tailor a precompiled VAX/Alpha VMS binary
> for our kernel on x86 would require a lot more than that: think
> virtual memory and instruction translation (JIT?) - I was under the
> impression that the existing code could load and execute a precompiled
> VMS binary, but I planned on doing this for our kernel anyways after
> we get it running. Just don't expect a whole lot for the case of
> hardware drivers, referring to an earlier discussion, but TCP/IP,
> filesystem and other QIO/RMS-dependent code will hopefully be compatible.
>
> > I haven't said that FreeVMS has to be only a 64 bits OS. I have
> written that _in a first time_, we have to write a runable and stable
> system on only one arch.
>
> Hopefully we can all agree on x86? I don't exactly have a SPARC
> machine laying around...
>
> Graham's resources will be quite interesting to read and design
> according to - I will take note of them this weekend during my next
> long coding session for this project.
>
> > Any special tool you will use for documentation? (Like doxygen,
> kernel-doc)?
>
> ...ASCII?
>
> In all seriousness, I have written my documentation in plain text in
> my IDE (Geany) as well as in-code comments clarifying functions and
> kernel interfaces. I don't like formats like PDF or DocBook (SGML)
> because they aren't all that portable and, frankly, a pain in the ass
> to read when running console-only or without a proper interpreter.
>
> Since we have a wiki, I vote for plaintext documentation with the easy
> conversion to wiki-markup later by human hands as we make the
> documentation public outside of the source code. If anyone has any
> other ideas, let them be heard, but I'm just shooting for simplicity
> and portability but I want to get the code properly documented without
> detracting too much from the actual coding, and the in-IDE ASCII
> editing allows me to do that while acheiving full portability.
>
> But I'm not saying I'm closed to other options, as long as they are
> simple to use and in a portable format.
>
> -AC
>
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>
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