Conference turris::languages

Contact Chris Nolan of TLE,  ORPHAN::NOLAN.  I believe he does have a 
MODULA compiler.

mark

I have no idea whose fault it is, but the lousy modula compiler wants
all reserved words in upper case.  Lets hear it for the KGB.  What the
hell ever happened to individuality.  This is right up there with the 
tty driver on vms being too stupid to rebind control h to be "delete".

Is this a midnight hack, soon to be a product, or acquisition from a 3rd party?

- dave

	Let's have some more dialogue on this language!  What is it?
	It's Wirth's latest, and supposedly better than Pascal.
	Is DEC going to get on the stick and have VAX MODULA-2 avail-
able as a product?
		<_Jym_>

I just read in Electronics Design (May 31, 1984 Vol. 32 Number 11 page
51) that "designers and programmers at Digital Equipment Corp's Western
Research Laboratory (Los Altos, Calif.) expect it (Modula-2) to come
into its own soon."  It mentions a benchmark test of Modula-2 versus
C and Pascal running on a VAX-11/780 under Berkeley 4.2 BSD Unix, but
doesn't say where the compiler comes from.

Anybody know? Is this ours?

Don.

I recall a technical session in Hudson with the speaker from the WRL.

The topic was the "Portable Optimizing Code Generator for Modula-2".

I'll assume that the compiler is ours - chunks of it seem to be.

- dave

From the UseNet this morning:

   Due to heroic efforts by Mike Powell we are now mailing out tapes
   of the DECWRL Modula-2 system.  All this is being done less than
   6 months after the original announcement!  (We feel some sympathy
   for Berkeley and others who try to distribute software as a sideline
   service.)  Anyway, all the US and Canadian colleges and universities
   who asked for, received, and successfully completed and returned
   license agreements should be receiving their tapes shortly.  The
   fixes, changes, and additions to dbx that Mark Linton recently
   posted are also included on the tape.  We look forward to hearing
   of good experiences with this tape.  If the feedback is positive
   we will work at trying to get the system included in the Ultrix-32
   distribution.

   Forest Baskett - Digital Equipment Corporation - Western Research Lab

Jack

The Hudson Library has a tape refered to in .6 (& .7).  It is entitled,
"A Portable Optimizing Compiler for Modula-2".  The tape is of a session
presented in Hudson by Dr. Michael Powell from DEC's Western Research
Lab.  The tape is available from the library, call number TSS840523 C.2.

Mike Powell presents (5/23/84) his work in writing an optimizing Modula-2
compiler.  The results are presented for about a dozen of the more common
bench marks programs.  These are run on a VAX-11/780 in Pascal (Berkley's
and DEC's), C (Unix and VMS versions), BLISS, and a few others.  Overall
the optimized Modula-2 compiler generated code that executed in less time.
The compiler was written in Pascal (23000 lines) and is being distributed
to Universities for $100.  The aim is to make Modula-2 more popular and
mature.  The compiler is being rewritten in Modula-2 which will result
in faster compile times.  The compiler runs on BSD 4.2 but not VMS.  It
is being ported to Z8000, M68000, Cray-1, and Titan (WRL's RISC machine).

My own opinion, is that Modula-2 is a significant step forward from "C"
and Pascal.  It suffers much less from macro abuse that I've seen in
product development with BLISS.  I applaude Dr. Powell's efforts.

RE:.8 sorry, I didn't identify myself.  [VIKING] is aka Paul W. Perkins
WPS development, DECdx for VMS, RSX, RSTS, and TOPS-20.

This year's "language" (August) issue of BYTE is dedicated to Modula-2.

							- Victor -

	There is a Modula-2 notes file on ELUDOM::SYS$NOTES:MODULA.NOT.

chris.

    Re: .2 (requiring UPPERCASE reserved words)
    
    That is the Modula-2 standard as defined by Wirth.