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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Bootcamp
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2025 22:39:15 -0000 (UTC)
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On Thu, 3 Jul 2025 10:56:26 -0400, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> 5) The idea of emulating one OS on another OS is questionable
>     in itself. It is not that difficult to achieve 90-95%
>     compatibility. But 100% compatibility is very hard. Because
>     the core OS design tend to spill over into
>     userland semantics. It is always tricky to emulate *nix
>     on VMS and it would be be tricky to emulate VMS on *nix.

It was always tricky to emulate *nix on proprietary OSes. But emulating 
proprietary OSes on Linux does actually work a lot better. Look at WINE, 
which has progressed to the point where it can be the basis of a 
successful shipping product (the Steam Deck) that lets users run Windows 
games without Windows. That works so well, it puts true Windows-based 
handheld competitors in the shade.

That has never been done before. And it’s got to be a more difficult job 
than emulating VMS, with its much simpler APIs.

> Getting DCL, image activation, process permanent files,
> subprocesses, logicals and symbols working 100% compatible on a
> Linux kernel would not be easy. A lot hang on the 4 mode design and
> DCL being in S.

We don’t need to emulate the internals of DCL. We just need to be able to 
run users’ command procedures.