Well, C on UNIX is really assembler - just one step removed from the bits and bytes of the underlying CPU. Its designers realized that there is not much benefit in writing CPU specific code to copy x bytes of memory to another location over the generic "a = b" kind of code. Same for other basic operation common to most CPUs - arithmetic, compare, branch etc. Going CPU specific and lot of tedius work one could get a few percent CPU savings but it wasn't considered to be worth it. And I tend to agree. On the other hand OS specific facilities ( macros, SVC ) were wrapped for easy use in "standard library". Then again their "standard library" is NOT z/OS standard library, though you can try to map it. This also made their application and system programming domains a continuum rather than two isolated domains. A similar approach for MVS would have been great in my humble opinion but it developed on very different lines. On one side we have COBOL programmers who hardly know anything about the capabilities and strength of the underlying OS. Their domain is merely the generic computing functions ( arithmetic, compare etc. ) and middleware API ( CICS command level, DB2 SQL, IMS calls etc.). Just ask any COBOLer about coding a program with parallel tasks. This step is a lot easier for a UNIX programmer. On the other hand the "real" programmers talk in bits and bytes which does create a "guru" aura but isn't easy for the newcomers. Just my 2 cents Mohammad
On Thu, 24 May 2007 06:16:38 -0600, Steve Comstock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> I do agree with the author that it's a good idea to have a standard >> language or two shipping with your operating system. But which ones? For >> > >Assembler comes, of course; it's not "standard" in the sense >there is no OpenSource, ISO, ANSII Assembler standard; but >it's everywhere on zSeries, and it comes included. > >Assembler! The only _real_ language! > >> >> There's also the Linux factor of course: Novell, Red Hat, CentOS, Debian, >> Slack/390, and Gentoo S390 distributions all include gcc. Could they >> cross-compile GCCMVS for z/OS, per the author's wish? >> >> Last but not least, Dignus has their System/C and System/C++ products. >> >> - - - - - >> Timothy Sipples > > >Kind regards, > >-Steve Comstock ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
