Ah yes, RPG.... I used to write and maintain programs on an AS/400 in RPG-III and /400 back in my youth. Good memories.
I know GCC has COBOL and also FORTRAN and ADA but I don't know of an RPG compiler. - Peter On Tue, Sep 29, 2026 at 4:25 PM Paul Koning via cctalk < [email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Sep 29, 2026, at 3:44 PM, ben via cctalk <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > On 2026-09-29 11:36 a.m., Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > >>> On Sep 29, 2026, at 1:22 PM, ben via cctalk <[email protected]> > wrote: > >>> > >>> ... Like what machines other than IBM had binary and decimal computing? > >> That depends. One answer is "all of them" -- because any general > purpose computer can do both. > > > > True, but in 60's and 70's only PL/1 or subsets of it could do binary > and decimal computing in a high level language.I have not looked at any > newer languages cause nothing would ever port. > > Um, you forgot COBOL! Which is still around; GCC now includes a COBOL > compiler. RPG maybe also, though I don't know that language. And nowadays > there is Python, though I don't know if the decimal arithmetic library on > Python/VAX would use those instructions. > > >> If you meant "had machine instructions both for decimal and for binary > arithmetic", the answer includes the PDP-11 and VAX, and I think the Intel > 4004 had instructions used as building blocks in decimal arithmetic. > > > > You must of had a custom PDP 11 then. > > Nope. It's the "commercial instruction set" which was an optional feature > on several PDP-11 models sold by DEC, clearly documented in the PDP-11 > architecture manual, and supported by at least COBOL and probably RPG; the > kernel would also use the CIS MOVC instruction for memcpy if present in the > machine. There is of course the famous PDP-11/74 (one of two unshipped > models of that name) which was an 11/70 with CIS added, canceled around the > time the VAX came out. Internal rumors were that it was due to it being > faster than the VAX for COBOL workloads. > > paul > >
