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From: Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: The joy of VAX
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2024 19:05:40 +0100
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On 9/28/24 00:29, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Sep 2024 10:43:13 +0100, Pancho wrote:
> 
>> Ah! there we have the Internet and a Search engine. :-)
> 
> My knowledge of those documents comes from having actual paper copies
> while using actual physical machines, back in the day when these systems
> were new.
> 

Well, ok, 40 years on I can't remember every manual I read. Especially 
given the size of the VMS collection.

<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Vax-vms-grey-wall.jpg>

I do have a vague memory the Vax C manual you mention was an orange one, 
and smaller than the rest, no idea if it is a correct memory. I can't 
even remember much of K&R now.


>> I'm not sure if I had that book or not. It looks like it is heavily
>> orientated to calling VMS system services from C. I think my problem was
>> calling C from Pascal. The application was Pascal based.
> 
> Pascal should have been easier. VAX Pascal (V2 and later) had all kinds of
> elaborate facilities (nonstandard, of course) for low-level interfacing to
> the system and to other languages, controlling storage layout in the
> linker etc. It was a full-on systems programming language and no mistake.
> 
> Again, I know all this from first-hand experience.

As I recall Vax Pascal was fine, Vax C was fine. Both had adequate 
coverage of calling system services, it was just the interlanguage 
calling that was poorly documented.

The VMS book I really enjoyed, but had stolen twice, was Kenah: 
∗vax/vms∗ Internals & Data Structures.